HORRENDOUS: Father Raped 13-Year-Old Daughter for Two Years, Then Murdered Her – in Kalimpong

HORRENDOUS: Father Raped 13-Year-Old Daughter for Two Years, Then Murdered Her – in Kalimpong

Kalimpong , 13 Dec (TDC) : “My father has made my life hell, I fear someday, I may die” – perhaps the 13-year-old girl, whose dead body was recovered by police yesterday knew she didn’t have long to live.

Her friends from the village, who heard her say “My father has made my life hell, I fear someday, I may die” were children like her, and they didn’t know what she meant. The little girl who died, never got a chance to tell them the whole truth. Most of her friends are in shock.

Jaldhaka police have arrested 45-years-old Shukra Bahadur Pradhan from the remote Lower Godak village, on charges of murdering his own daughter. They were in for a shock, when the culprit confessed to also repeatedly raping his daughter for the past two years. This grotesque episode of human depravity just doesn’t end there. After murdering her, Shukra had audaciously buried his daughter next to his house, hoping it would cover his crime.

According to sources, Shukra Bahadur Pradhan was a very controlling person. He never allowed his daughter to mingle with anyone else. If she got delayed even by minutes while coming from somewhere, he would literally make her life hell, by brutally beating her up. The neighbours also informed the press that, he used to brutalize his wife too, because of which, she had left him roughly two years ago.

On the night of the 9th of December, the little girl had been delayed similarly, he went on to brutalize her, and later killed her. He then attempted to hide his crime by burying her right next to his house. On the 10th of December, informed had his nephew that his daughter had committed suicide the night before, “so I buried her.”

Shocked, his nephew went to inquire, and when he found the place where the little girl had been buried, he raised alarm. This brought other people from the village there, and gradually the truth came out.

When Jaldhaka Police OC Nilam Sanjeev Kujur conducted preliminary interrogation/inquiry at the site of murder, Shukra Bahadur Pradhan told him, in front of the press, how she had threatened to expose his repeatedly raping her, and he ended up killing her.

This incident has left everyone in the village numb, with his own family members now asking for a death sentence for him.

Police have recovered the dead body of the little girl, and have sent it for autopsy. Meanwhile, Shukra Bahadur Pradhan was presented at the Kalimpong District Court, and the court has sent him on 7 days of police custody. Cases have been filed against him under sections IPC 302, 201 and POCSO RW Section 6.

Source The Darjeeling Chronicles

NO SAATHI CAME TO THEIR RESCUE – Father murders disabled son, hangs himself in Dooars

People in North Bengal have suffered utter deprivation, discrimination and administrative apathy for so long, that the news of a father killing his disabled son and hanging himself, due to them not being able to afford an operation hasn’t even made headlines in local news outlets. So many have died in the past due to starvation, lack of health care, lack of medicines in Dooars that two more added to the stats, no matter how grotesque the deaths were, didn’t even register a bleep in the local news cycle, let alone regional or national news. The news of this desperation lead murder-suicide was perhaps not even considered newsworthy.

DESPERATE FATHER
Baroghoria Gram, which falls under Kranti police station in the Malbazar sub-division of Alipurduar District where the incident took place, is like every other typical village in Dooars, North Bengal. It is predominantly an Adivasi village, and there is not much to write about in terms of infrastructure. Suffice it to say, infrastructure in the form of basic health care is nonexistent. Abhiraj Oroan - a tribal child was born in this faraway village with imperforate anus - a rare birth disorder where the child has an improperly developed anus, and therefore can't pass stool normally from their rectum out of their body. He would release stool through a small hole in his navel.

His father Pandit Oroan (35) was desperate, with a very limited income. He was desperate to have his son operated on, a date for which was set towards the end of December this year. This operation, known as anoplasty, could have opened up Abhiraj’s rectum and the child would have been able to have a normal stool procedure. Sadly the operation cost money, which Pandit Oroan didn’t have.

Unable to collect funds needed to pay for the operation, Pandit took the most unfortunate decision.

His wife, who is still in grief stated, “around 7 PM on the 2nd of December he took the child out... I didn’t think much, only later we found that he had drowned the baby in the well behind the house and had hung himself by the tree.”

FAILED SYSTEM
Across India, the Central Government has introduced “Ayushman Bharat” scheme, which provides for up to Rs 5 Lakhs health insurance per year to economically marginalized families, and has helped hundreds of thousands of people like Pandit Oroan. However in West Bengal, the benefits of this scheme are yet to percolate down to the grassroots level. Bengal has resisted the introduction of Ayushman Bharat scheme, instead they are adamant on increasing the scope of their existing “Swasthya Sathi” scheme.

In Bengal, the state government had started a group health scheme “Swasthya Sathi” - that covers mostly contractual and part-time government employees, back in 2016, and they have shown their willingness to join the Ayushman Bharat scheme, but the modalities are yet to be worked out. This has left millions of economically marginalized families deprived. Though “Swasthya Sathi” scheme does call for inclusion of “deprived sections of the society” in its fold, on the ground the scheme is yet to reach deprived families, like that of Pandit Oraon.

Back in Barogharia Gram as the news of this murder-suicide spread, locals along with police officials rushed to the site of the incident. While a huge crowd had gathered after their death, the father-son didn’t have any saathi to count on, when they needed help the most.

As the Bengal government has been unable to provide proper health care support to the marginalized families, shouldn’t they ethically step aside, and permit the Central government scheme to take care of them?

Many have started to ask.

Source : thedarjeelingchronicle