An Indian-origin woman has started an online petition, demanding a fair investigation into the rape and murder of a schoolgirl in her hometown in India.
Ruchika Chauhan, a social entrepreneur from Sydney is calling for an independent investigation to bring those responsible for the crime to book, and creating awareness about the link between drugs and crime in her petition which has garnered over 3,000 signatures.
It is asking the state government to “break the silence, take a stand against sexual violence.”
The incident
Local residents have been staging protests to press the state government and the police to act against the perpetrators after a 16-year-old student of a government school in Kotkhai town near Shimla went missing after attending school on July 4. Her naked body was found near isolated woods two days later.
Police managed to arrest six suspects and charged them with rape and murder. However, the public outrage among the local residents continued as many of them believed the real perpetrators were not arrested.
The state government, feeling the heat from the public outrage, handed over the investigation of the case to India’s central investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The state head of the ruling Congress party welcomed the decision, admitting lapses in the investigation by the state police.
“It is a welcome step that the chief minister has referred the case to the CBI. However, I admit that there have been lapses (in the probe) that led to public outcry,” Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Party said.
Ruchika Chauhan says she started her petition to spread awareness about the growing problem of drugs and its link to rising crime in the area.
“My friends working in the human rights space do tell me that even sober men rape. But there’s a strong feeling that this [drugs and alcohol] is a part of the problem here,” Ruchika Chauhan tells SBS Punjabi.
Ms Chauhan says the incident has shattered the myth of the place being safe for women.
“It’s one of those places that you have the impression at the back of your mind that it’s peaceful and it’s safe for women. But I don’t think it is,” she says.
Gold Coast-based migration agent Seema Chauhan has been providing scholarships to a government school in the town where the 16-year-old victim studied.
“When I read the news and the name of the school came up, I felt a deep sense of loss,” she said.
Ms Chauhan says there’s a strong suspicion among local community in Kotkhai that the real culprits are being shielded.
“The reports that are coming out have not been consistent from the beginning. We want the real culprits brought to justice so that this ghastly incident doesn’t deter other people from sending their children to school,” she says.
