NEW DELHI: The gruesome gang-rape of Nirbhaya and a Mumbai photographer shook the nation's conscience but equally disturbing is the suffering of a dalit family residing in a Haryana village just 150 km from Delhi.

A school-going 15-year-old girl was kidnapped and repeatedly gang-raped in a car by the sons of influential persons in village Chotikalasi in Haryana's Nilokheri tehsil on August 6 last year. The accused released her with a warning that if she did not return to them every 10 days, her parents would be killed.

The girl told her mother about the incident who in turn informed the father. A case was lodged and tests confirmed sexual assault. On learning about the incident, the school principal, instead of taking steps for the girl's rehabilitation, struck off her name from the school rolls.

Less than a month after the assault, the accused carried out their threat by kidnapping the rape survivor's mother and allegedly shot her dead. A distressed father went to the local police to register FIRs for the rape of his daughter and murder of his wife. The police tore up his complaint.

Finally, on September 24 last year, the rape survivor's father travelled to the Bhutana police station in Karnal to register complaint about gang-rape of his daughter, subsequent threat and kidnap and murder of his wife. A chargesheet was filed by police on November 1 last year.

Filing of chargesheet did not end the woes of the dalit family as the father and daughter were constantly targeted by the dominant caste to which the accused belonged. Fearing for life because of constant pressure from the family of the accused to withdraw the cases, the father was left with no option but to move the Supreme Court seeking protection.

"The uncle and father of Aman (one of the accused) – Joginder Singh and Sultan Singh – threatened the petitioner that just as his wife was killed, he too would be killed," the petition said.

Though the police arrested the uncle and father of the accused, the threat persists, petitioner's counsel Colin Gonsalves said and requested a bench of Justices R M Lodha and Madan B Lokur to protect the man.

The bench reacted with disgust and shock. "Something appears to have broken down in society and in the law-enforcing machinery. The authorities need to explain," it said and issued notices to chief secretaries of states and administrators of Union Territories asking them to detail remedial measures taken so far.

The petitioner said the Haryana government has paid Rs 60,000 to his daughter for the gang-rape and Rs 3.75 lakh for the murder of his wife.