Police hound abused siblings

The widowed mother of the three children who were drugged, raped and forced into incest by their cab driver and four schoolboys for 18 months has alleged that the police are harassing the family, telling them to drop the case as “rich kids” are involved.

The widowed mother of the three children who were drugged, raped and forced into incest by their cab driver and four schoolboys for 18 months has alleged that the police are harassing the family, telling them to drop the case as “rich kids” are involved.

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In complete violation of child rights, the three victims were called to the Prasad Nagar police station in central Delhi and asked to identify two of the teenaged accused on Saturday.

“My two sons were asked to identify them. When they said yes, the policeman glared at them. In a threatening voice, he asked if they were sure. Then they started intimidating the children,” Ramkumari (name changed) told Hindustan Times.

She alleged that she and her children had been called to the police station thrice since they complained on Thursday. “Each time we go there, my kids have to relive the ordeal. They (police) don’t understand that the kids are not in a state of mind to narrate what happened to them over and over again,” she said.

The boys — aged 10 and seven — are now addicted to the drugs they were given and have been sent to a rehabilitation facility. The girl (12) couldn’t even sit up when she was brought to the police station on Monday and kept her face hidden with a duppata. She told HT she’d been beaten up so many times that her hearing was now damaged.

“I was slapped whenever I resisted. I can barely hear from my left ear now, it hurts a lot,” she said, also pointing to a black eye she got from being punched.

Ramkumari said she was humiliated by the police every time she went to the station.

“We were made to stand but the two boys (accused) and their fathers were given chairs. The investigating officer kept telling me to take back my complaint,” Ramkumari said.

She said she had experienced insensitivity at the children’s school too. “I recently changed my daughter’s school. A few days ago, I went to her old school where my sons still study and told their class teacher that some of the seniors were drugging and raping my children. The teacher refused to believe me,” Ramkumari said.

“We have received the complaint and are looking into it,” said Rajan Bhagat, police spokesman.