One of two sisters sentenced to be gang-raped in India has spoken of
her fear that the village elders who ordered the vile punishment will send
someone to carry it out. Meenakshi Kumari, 23, and her sister were sentenced after their brother ran
off with a married woman from a higher caste.
And she has told how she has not been able to sleep properly or leave the
house after fleeing her village to a secret location in Delhi. She said: "I can’t sleep, I’m very scared. How will we ever return home or to
our village? "If we ever return they will harm us or rape us. If not today then in the
future. Jats never forget and they will not forget this humiliation. They want
their revenge. Loving someone is not wrong."
In hiding: Meenakshi and her family have
been forced to flee their home Their brother, Ravi Kumar, 25, from the Dalit caste, historically known as
"untouchables", had been in a relationship with 21-year-old Krishna from the Jat
caste for almost two years. When both families came to know they did all they could to keep the two
apart. Older brother Sumit Kumar, 28, who works as a constable in the Delhi Police,
said he told his younger brother to end the relationship immediately because
they could never be together. He said: "We belong to a lower caste and they are from an upper caste and I
told him this relationship could never work. We are treated as untouchables but
he didn't listen to me and now we are paying for it." Ravi met Krishna two years ago when she joined his computer classes for
children, in Khekada, Uttar Pradesh, central India.
They exchanged phone numbers and quickly fell in love. They’d be on the phone
to each other all the time and meeting in secret locations. But as soon as Ravi’s father Naik Dharampal Singh, 52, heard of the
relationship he told him to end it. Even though Ravi ended the relationship they couldn’t bear to be apart.
Eventually Krishna’s parents started looking for prospective husbands for her
but she refused.
Faisal Magray/Cover
Asia Press
Ordeal: Sumit Kumar with sister
Meenakshi "It was hard for my brother but he understood the situation," Sumit said. "Her family knew about their relationship before the marriage. They beat
their daughter a lot and gave my brother warnings many times. "In the end my brother told her to go ahead with the marriage, she had to.
She went ahead with the marriage in Haryana but she was very unhappy. They
treated her like a maid.
So she left and returned home. And that’s when she and my brother started
their relationship again." Ravi and Krishna had eloped twice before but had returned. Each time Sumit
claimed her family beat her.
"We made him understand it was dangerous. At the end of the day it’d be our
family who would suffer. He understood what he was doing, he knew the risks but
love took over. "When the girl got in touch with him he just couldn’t contain his emotions.
We are now helpless. His future is ruined completely and our family is in
danger."
Following the backlash that trailed her performance at Shatta Wale's Reign Concert over the weekend, Ghanaian singer, Fantana has now released a statement. The singer stated that she is not ashamed of being a woman and also mesntruating. Her statement read in part; "Regardless of my costume being transparent, my only option was to put on a sanitary pad and still go ahead to perform. I am a woman and I’m not ashamed of menstruating. "I want to urge every woman to resist being discriminated against because of menstruation. I hope some people read wide and learn about menstrual health to stop the stereotype against young girls and women. "Yes my menses appeared 30 minutes to my performance and I had to put on a sanitary pad and still go on stage. "Menstruation is not a shame and I urge all young women take a cue from my actions and not to let it stop them from doing anything they want to do."
An expectant father has accused EFCC officials of breaking into his home in the middle of the night to conduct a search without a warrant. The man said he was at his home in Olokuta, Kemta, in Idi-Aba, Abeokuta between 3 am to 5 am, when some men forcefully broke into his house using a hammer. He added that he was afraid they were armed robbers, so he hid in the guest bedroom with his pregnant wife as the men broke in through the sitting room window. According to him, the intruders claimed to be EFCC officials looking for "Yahoo boys", but they had no form of identification, neither did they have a search warrant. Even without a search warrant, the victim alleged that they searched his house, damaged things, then left without as much as an apology. Photos shared with LIB shows that the lock on the gate leading into the compound was broken. They also used force on the burglary proof, thereby causing a dent to it. A door leadi...
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