Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Samba, October 30

Virtually abandoned by the self-proclaimed ‘social activists’, the helpless family of the Kathua rape victim has demanded the details of the funds collected by them during their campaign in January this year.

The family members have reason to seek the details as the funds were collected to ensure “justice” to their daughter. However, the ‘social activists’ are now shying away from giving financial assistance to the family and sharing information about the funds collected so far. “We have information that lakhs of rupees were collected from different parts of the world by exploiting the incident by some people,” the grandfather of the victim said, adding, “Those who were in the forefront to ensure justice are now even hesitating to attend our phone calls.”

Echoing similar sentiments, the biological father of the victim recalled that in April this year some persons had got their signatures on some papers to withdraw money. “I don’t how much money was collected during the campaign and how much of it was withdrawn,” he said, adding that before their seasonal migration to mountainous areas, they were promised financial aid by some social activists.

The Kathua rape victim’s biological family has reached Nandani forest of Samba district after spending four months in cold desert of Kargil during summer. They will stay in Samba forest till March next year with their livestock. “After reaching Samba, we tried our best to get details about the funds collected during the campaign but to no avail due to the evasive attitude of the so-called crusaders,” he said, adding, “Those who had promised to provide every possible help to us six months back are pretending to be busy with other ‘important’ work.”