Sonia, Rahul meet family members of Delhi gangrape victim

Mangaloretoday/ITV

New Delhi, Feb 2:  Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi met family members of the Delhi gangrape victim this evening, a day after government brought an ordinance providing for tough punishment to rapists.
Sonia and Rahul drove to the residence of the gangrape victim’s family and was with the family members for over an hour. The 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped and brutally assaulted in December last year. She died a few days later in a Singapore hospital.

 

The parents of the girl told the Congress leaders that the proposed law on crimes against women should be such that there should be no recurrence of such an indicent. The two brothers of the girl were also present. The Congress President hugged the mother of the girl and was visibly moved as the parents narrated their struggle to educate their children including the daughter.

Rahul also interacted with the brothers—one is 12th pass and another 10th pass—during which he also gave his phone number to them. The Congress leaders visited their residence after the father of the girl had two days ago sought a meeting with Sonia Gandhi to press for quick action on Justice Verma Committee recommendations’s on a law with focus on crimes against women.
Sources said there was no demand from the family members who thanked the two leaders for government’s decision to promulgate the ordinance. Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary and Mahabal Mishra, party MP who represents West Delhi, were also present during the 70-minute meeting.

 

Sonia Gandhi promised us a flat and a job for me, says Delhi braveheart’s brother

Delhi braveheart brother on Sunday said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi has assured his family of a flat in the national capital and a job for one of the members. Sonia along with party Vice President Rahul Gandhi had visited the family on Saturday. The brother of the 23-year-old girl, who was brutually beaten up and gangraped in a moving bus in the national capital on December 16, 2012, also said that Sonia told his family that charges have been framed against the accused in court and justice would be done soon.

He said that it was on the request of his mother that Sonia assured to initiate steps to get a flat alloted to them in the city and a job to him. The brother said that Sonia spent almost an hour with the family and for the maximum time, she was with the girl’s mother, who got emotional and broke down several times. The family discussed about punishment to the sixth accused, who had been declared juvenile, and to frame a law to reduce the age of being juvenile. He said Sonia intently listened to them and assured that she would see at her own level what could be done within the framework of the law.

She assured the family saying they should not worry about anything and she considered them as her family. She said she was personally watching every activity related to the case, he said. The brother said the Congress President expressed grief at not being able to save the girl despite all efforts. He said it was the fourth time Sonia had visited the family. Earlier, she went twice to the hospital and also met them at the airport when the body was flown back from Singapore, he said.