14-yr-old deaf-mute gangrape survivor in Uttarakhand gives birth to boy

According to the victim’s mother, the girl was threatened by the accused to not disclose about the incident.

A 14-year-old gang-rape victim from Haridwar gave birth to a boy in Government Doon Medical College Hospital (GDMCH) on Thursday.

The father of the victim is a daily wage earner and is worried about the future of his daughter and his grandchild. (AP)

The deaf and mute minor gave birth to the child at 8.15am. “The baby was premature and weighs 1.5kg. He has been placed in an incubator,” said Dr KK Tamta, medical superintendent of GDMCH. Hospital officials said the mother’s health is stable.

The victim’s father stepped out of Doon Hospital’s sick babies unit with an agitated look on his face. “Till Wednesday, we were worried as to what will happen once the baby is born. It is already here and we don’t know what to do,” he said and broke down.

The girl’s parents did not know about the rape for around four months.

“I noticed a little bulge in her belly. She had stopped eating properly and seemed withdrawn. I took her to a doctor where we got to know she was pregnant. After that she told us what happened,” said the girl’s mother.

“She told us she was forcibly taken by two boys of our village to a nearby field where they committed the heinous act. They then threatened her with a knife and a pistol to not disclose about the rape,” the mother said.

Many in the victim’s village tried to persuade her father to not take the matter to police.

“A person in my village offered me ₹25,000 to bury the hatchet. He also said he will arrange a medicine for my daughter which will kill the foetus in her womb,” the father said.

“We lodged a complaint against the two accused and booked them under section 376 for gang rape and also under POCSO,” said Vandana Agrawal, investigating officer of the case. “They were produced in court and sent to juvenile home. But after around one and a half months, they were bailed out.”

The girl’s father said for the past few months, he has been running from one department to another in order to get justice. “My daughter’s life is ruined and those two boys are roaming scot free. On two occasions they have threatened my son as well. I have tried to approach everyone from the police to the chief minister’s office but nothing has come out of it,” he said.

Upon his complaint, the member secretary of Uttarakhand State Commission for Women wrote to Haridwar’s senior superintendent of police on November 5, asking the official to take necessary action and submit a report to the commission before December 20.

When questioned whether the commission had received any response from the police, member secretary Kamini Gupta said, “As per my knowledge, we have not received any communication from them yet. We generally give an additional period of 10-15 days over the date mentioned in the letter for the authorities concerned to reply as they might be overburdened with work.”

Gupta said that two members of Dehradun’s child welfare committee visited the victim and her parents on Thursday evening. “The members asked whether they want to keep the child. The victim could not say anything but her mother said they are unsure of it. They will decide once the baby is better and out of the incubator,” she added.

Worrying about the future of his daughter and his grandchild, the minor girl’s father said, “I am a daily wage labourer and so is my son. I have three other daughters as well. We were somehow surviving before all this happened.”

“Now I have an eight-member family to feed. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what will happen to my daughter and to my grandchild. She is herself a child. How will she raise him,” he said