Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 21

He would be invariably greeted by his young sprightly daughter as he returned home after a hard day’s work. She would fetch him water and then hasten to serve food. But on June 15, his world fell apart. His teenaged daughter was raped by three men, who barged into their house. His 12-year-old son, who raised an alarm, was strangled to death.

Brutalised, the 14-year-old, who is admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital, now fears any man who approaches her. “Sab khatam ho gaya (it’s all finished for me)”, says the father, a daily wager, who cremated his son two days ago.

“They would have killed my daughter too had my son, who was playing outside, not raised the alarm. As she ran out, the trio caught hold of my son. We found his body hanging from a hook. I do not want to go back to my house. The memories will haunt me,” he says, his face stained with tears.

“I want the rapists hanged,” says the victim’s mother, standing near her daughter’s hospital bed. “For days she did not eat or speak. Neither did she cry. She would be terrified if approached. Finally on Wednesday, she revealed to me the horror that she had undergone.”

Accused Kuldeep Singh, Jugraj Singh, and Gurjant Singh have been arrested. “Kuldeep Singh knew that the victim, a Class VIII student, was alone at home. He and his friends trespassed into the house and raped her,” said the SHO of Ghagga police station, Gurmeet Singh.

They three have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

The couple’s elder son is mentally challenged. The have another daughter aged five. “We are afraid to return to our village as relatives of the accused have been threatening us”, they say.