Cannot live in a place where my children are not safe, says mother of rape victim

LUCKNOW: Two days after a sixyear-old girl was raped and murdered allegedly by her father’s friend in Saadatganj on Sunday, her parents were planning to leave the locality.

“The man, who raped and killed my daughter, used to call her ‘beti’, and was like a brother to me. My husband arranged a job for him and in return he unleashed such brutality on my daughter,” said the 25- year-old mother of the victim girl, adding “We cannot live in this locality where one cannot even trust a brother. We will leave this place and go to some other place.”

The woman, with her husband (27) sitting on the gate of their single rented room, said she last saw her daughter on Sunday.

“The Babloo came to my house and asked from her for a glass of water. My daughter offered him water and then he left. Soon, she also went out of the house and we thought she was going to play with her friends. But, later we realised that she was missing,” said her mother.

The couple, who also have two sons-- four and two years old, tried to search for the girl but did not find her. When police came and took the family members to the house of the Babloo, where they recovered the girl’s body. Her father fainted after seeing the body of his daughter in a pool of blood under a cot.

“There were three cuts on her neck. The T-shirt, she was wearing, was torn and thrown in a corner of the room. Her body was half naked and it appeares that she was murdered after committing rape on her,” said a male member of the family.

The post-mortem examination also confirmed that the girl was raped before her throat was slit with a sharp object that caused

› The man, who raped and killed my daughter, used to call her ‘beti’, and was like a brother to me...but in return he unleashed such brutality on my daughter. MOTHER OF THE RAPE VICTIM

death.

Police have arrested Babloo and charged him with murder and rape of the minor, but the vistim’s family has lost all hope. “Jise itne sal bhai kaha usne hamare saath ye kia, ab hum kispe bharosa karen (The person whom I called brother for years, he did this to me, now whom should I trust upon),” said the woman, breaking into tears. “Meri bachchi ke saath insaaf hona chahiye (Justice must be done to my daughter).

“I clean floors and utensils in three houses, my husband worked as a mason, we faced every hardship to bring up a family. We wanted our daughter to study and do better in life, but she was taken away from us. We don’t have other option but to leave from here,” said the mother.