On September 14, 2022, two Dalit sisters were raped and killed in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur district. Junaid, Sohail, Arif, Hafiz, Chhote, and Karimuddin were arrested in the case. The charge sheet in the case was filed in 14 days, but now it has come to light that the victim’s family has been left to fend for themselves after that.
Sandhya Dwivedi of Dainik Bhaskar spoke to the victim’s family and reported on the matter in detail. According to the report, the cheques given by Congress leaders to this family in the name of help at that time have either bounced or been rejected due to a sign mismatch. The family also said that the help promised by the administration has also not been provided to the victim’s family.
Not only this, the family is getting tired of making the rounds of the court, having gone there 45 times in the last 2 months. Questions of the lawyers of the accused and the court proceedings have also caused mental agony to the family. According to the report, the victim’s mother was asked questions like ‘whether the girls were dressed or not?’, ‘how torn were the clothes?’, ‘where exactly were they torn from?’ etc, upsetting her.
The cheques provided by Congress bounced
The victim’s family was promised help by several politicians and organizations at the time of the incident. Cheques were given to them as financial assistance. According to the report by Dainik Bhaskar, Congress MLA Virendra Chaudhary gave a cheque of Rs 1 lakh and the UP Congress Committee gave a cheque of Rs 2 lakh. However, the cheque received from the Congress party bounced. Congress MLA’s cheque was rejected due to a sign mismatch. Similarly, a cheque of Rs 1 lakh from Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena president Amit Jani has also bounced.
Dainik Bhaskar’s report has quoted UP Congress leader Siddharth Trivedi as saying that this issue will be resolved as soon as possible. When OpIndia spoke to former Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Singh Lallu in this regard, he denied having any information. Amit Jani told OpIndia that his cheques got wet in the rain. He said that he had later called the victim’s family and asked them to take the cash. He said he is hurt as the victim’s family took this matter to the media.
Lakhimpur administration’s promises to the family
The Lakhimpur administration had also promised financial assistance of Rs 16 lakh to the victim’s family at the time of the crime. They were also assured help in the form of a house and a job. But Dainik Bhaskar has quoted the victim’s family as saying in its report that these promises have not been fulfilled. OpIndia contacted the office of Lakhimpur Kheri’s District Magistrate IAS Mahendra Bahadur Singh in this regard. The DM’s office asked us to seek information from ADM about this case. The ADM, unaware of the information in this regard, asked us to contact him later. We will update this report as soon as we get the information from the ADM office.
Dainik Bhaskar’s report mentions that the UP government had promised to punish the culprits within a month. The charge sheet was also filed in 14 days, but the hearing in the case is still going on. Sometimes the transfer of the judge and sometimes the accused being minors has slowed down the hearing. Meanwhile, the victim’s family is tired of making the rounds of the court.
