New Delhi, Jan 26 : The Hmar Students’ Association (HSA), Delhi, has written to chief minister Shiela Dikshit demanding stern punishment for the accused in the rape of 20 year old girl from Manipur on January 18 in the national capital. A copy of the letter addressed to the Delhi chief minister was received here today.
The Association stated that: “Considering the seriousness of this case and similar incidents that happened at the National Capital Region (NCR) and the unprecedented racial/gender-based violence meted to the people of North East India living in NCR, we, the Hmar Students’ Association, Delhi demands the following to be taken up by your good office at the earliest so that justice be delivered to the victim, who is physically and mentally disturbed by the trauma she went through.”
The Association demands that the rapist be “punished appropriately without fail as per the law of the country.” It wants that the rapist in the case be “booked under suitable sections of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989,” and also the victim be compensated under the same Act or any other prevailing laws that cover this nature of crime.
Further, the Association demands that “a special cell headed by an IPS officer from North East India be established within the Delhi Police to pro-actively deal with the issues and problems regularly faced by people from the North East India in NCR.”
Also related the sequence of event which led to rape incident and police inaction thereafter, the Association said that the victim after escaping from the rapist returned to her place and an FIR was filed at Dwarka Sector 28 police station on January 19 and her statement taken by the concerned police.
“The police who promised to arrest the rapist after 2 hours of filing of the report, arrested the rapist only after 5 days after the incident,” the Association explained. The letter was appended by the president James Pusing Sanate and secretary Zacharia Varte.
