Delhi gang-rape: ’Our tears haven’t dried’ braveheart’s father

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Dec 15:  "Our tears have not dried. With each passing day, her memories get more intense. Someone is always crying at home." These words of the father of the 23-year-old paramedical intern describe the pain and struggle her family has endured as it grapples with a tragedy that tore into India, introducing street protests, new laws for sex offences, and a national debate on the safety of women.

Since the incident on December 16 last year, the braveheart’s family remains in grief and anger. "We will never recover and she is very much alive within us," the 48-year-old father told PTI.

On the night of December 16, 2012, his daughter was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six persons in a moving bus and dumped by the roadside along with her male friend who was also injured. The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern lost her battle with life at a hospital in Singapore on December 29.

 

Four among the six rapists - Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh - were sentenced to death by a court in September after a nine-month trial while the juvenile among the six was tried by the Juvenile Justice Board which sent him to an observation home for three years. The sixth accused, Ram Singh, was found dead in March in his cell in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Fighting back tears, he said that their real battle began after they filed petition in the Supreme Court on November 30 against the juvenile accused who was "let off". A hearing on the petition is scheduled for January 6.

"We have not yet got justice. We want all the culprits including the juvenile to be hanged. Only then will perhaps our minds get some rest and we will be able to sleep in peace," he said, with his wife nodding in agreement.

The family plans to go to their native home in Ballia in Uttar Pradesh for the rituals on their daughter’s death anniversary on December 29.