‘She’ll play with anyone, that’s what he took advantage of...’
Lying on a hospital bed in Alwar, seven-month-old Yukti (name changed) greets every visitor with a big toothless grin. She cackles with delight when lifted up in arms, but shoots meaningful looks of protests your way the moment she’s put down.
“She is extremely playful and lovable,” her father Pradeep (name changed) said. “She’ll play with anyone. Maybe that’s what he took advantage of...,” he trails off.
Pradeep is a daily wage labourer from a village near Alwar’s Laxmangarh. The person he is referring to is their 19-year-old neighbour Pintu Somwal. On the night of May 9, Pradeep lodged a complaint at Laxmangarh police station that Somwal raped Yukti at a school ground in their village Harsana. Pintu was arrested on Thursday after being booked for rape under Indian Penal Code and also under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“I, along with my two daughters and mother-in-law, had gone to fetch water,” Yukti’s 35-year-old mother Rekha (name changed) said. “I had left her with my sister-in-law. When I got back she told me that Pintu had taken her,” she said.
Back at their house in Harsana village, Rekha’s sister-inlaw, who is partially blind, confirmed the story.
“I was in the house with Yukti and my own two-month-old daughter. Pintu came around 7pm and asked for milk. We have a buffalo and a cow and we supply milk to some of our neighbours. I told him to come back later as no one was at home,” she said.
“Yukti was sitting at my feet and crying. He asked if he can take her and play with her. I told him not to do so and leave. But he did not listen to me. He picked her up and went away. I started shouting, but there was no one in the house to listen to me,” she added.
Half an hour later, when the women returned, they got to know that Yukti was missing.
“Yukti’s grandmother came to our house and said that Pintu had taken Yukti away,” Pintu’s elder brother Tinku Somwal said. Sitting at their two-room house, he added. “We told her that he had not come home with the child. Pintu was drunk when he left the house, saying he is going to get some milk from our neighbours.”
“I then went looking for him and around 8 pm saw him around the village corner. He had Yukti up on his shoulders. I took the child, went to her house, and handed Yukti to her mother. I had no clue of what had happened,” Tinku said.
Rekha said she initially did not notice anything wrong with her daughter. “She seemed really quiet, but it was dark. There was no electricity in the house. Later, when I saw her under light, I realised she was soaked in blood,” Rekha said.
Soon, the news spread in the village and someone called the police. Pintu had snuck in a room of his house and was hiding. “I locked him in one of the rooms when I realised what had happened. But, a little while later, my mother opened the door and he ran away. By then police was already on their way and they caught him at a little distance from the house,” Tinku said.
A local court sent the accused to one-day police custody on Friday. “Pintu has confessed to the crime. During interrogation, he said something came over him when he had the child in his arms. He expressed remorse as well,” SHO of Laxmangarh police station Prahlad Sahay said.
Pintu had got married two years ago. A Brahmin, he went around the village every Saturday seeking alms. He received education till class 7, his brother said.
“He often used to drink but never did something like this,” Tinku said. “He has ruined our family,” he added with tears in his eyes.
At the hospital in Alwar, the child’s sparkling eyes do not bear the account of what happened on the evening of May 9. Watching her play with her mother, Pradeep said, “I don’t know why he did that to my little girl. Why would he do such a thing?”
ALWAR: