Nineteen-year-old Dalit girl from near a village of Modasa in North Gujarat, who was allegedly gang raped and later hanged was laid to rest in her native village on Thursday, even as pressure mounts on the administration to take action against the accused.
The young girl was found hanging on a tree on January 5. She had gone missing on January 1 and her parents approached the police two days thereafter.
Thousands of people, including Dalits, gathered in the funeral procession of the victim. Dalit leaders called on top brass of the SC/ST Commission and requested that they intervene in the matter.
It is reported that the Commission would meet the family members of the victims on Friday.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people had stayed put at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital and demanded justice for the victim.
Three of the four accused belong to the Bharwad community and one other is a Thakore. The grapevine is that the youth from the Bharwad community are close to a political leader from Gujarat, who belongs from the same community.
According to the FIR, the victim's sister was told by one of the accused that her sister was kidnapped and that the family could do whatever it could do.
The final postmortem report is not out yet.
The police are under tremendous pressure to initiate action. The protesters have been demanding that the case be heard in a fast track court.
Just a month ago when incidents of rape were reported from Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani had said that his government would strive for capital punishment for the accused in rape cases.
