KASGANJ: There is little trace of either relief or joy in a remote village of marginal labourers some 60km from Kasganj town, now at the centre of a Supreme Court observation that followed an Allahabad high court order which said a child’s breasts being groped over clothing and drawstrings of her pyjama being broken did not amount to attempt to rape.
When TOI visited the survivor’s village on Thursday, the atmosphere was tense and anxiety palpable. The team was met on a link road outside the village by Satbir, 34, the survivor’s uncle. “Don’t stop the vehicle, or I might be in trouble,” he said as he scrambled in. His concern, he explained, came from repeated threats and harassment the family had faced. “My niece was molested on this very road. Since then, we’ve been abused, threatened at gunpoint, and targeted with casteist slurs. Even after the (Supreme Court) stay, I know there will be repercussions.”
In the nondescript hamlet of about 200 families, everyone knows about the “chhoti bachchi” who was molested and nearly raped. There is no hiding. “We are under perpetual threat. They have come to our home many times, warning us to withdraw the case,” Satbir added.
The accused, he said, belonged to influential families and had licensed firearms. In the village, home to poor families who mostly work as marginal farmers owning less than a bigha of land, pushing back against such power was fraught with risk — pursuing justice meant more than legal struggle. It meant daily fear and economic collapse.
‘If court can’t protect honour of girls, who will’, asks victim’s dad
The girl has for now moved out of the village. Her parents, Satbir’s brother Samar and his wife, are in Delhi working through the legal paperwork after SC’s intervention. “She is not safe here. We sent her to her maternal grandparents,” a relative whispered.
Satbir’s father, 70, sat outside his thatched house — a cramped, four-foot-high structure with a rusting asbestos roof that traps heat in summer — staring blankly at his palms. “I don’t fully understand what Supreme Court has said,” he muttered. “But I was told what the high court did. If courts cannot protect the honour of our girls, then who will?”
The family has borrowed Rs 2.5 lakh from private lenders to sustain the legal fight. “We have no way to repay this debt. Look at our homes, look at our lives,” the old man said, gesturing at the rusted roofs and dark interiors. They said they could not have reached this point without support from Saroj Chauhan, a local activist. “This pocket of five villages has Yadavs in the minority. They are often subdued,” Chauhan said.
The assault occurred on Nov 10, 2021. The 11-year-old was walking home with her mother when two men known to the family — Pawan Kumar, 25, and Akash Singh, 30, — offered her a lift on their motorbike. The mother agreed. After a short distance, the men stopped near a culvert. “They grabbed my daughter’s breasts. Akash broke the string of her pyjamas. She screamed, which drew the attention of passersby,” her mother said. Later, when she went to confront Pawan, she was threatened with a gun.
Police allegedly refused to register an FIR multiple times. The mother then approached the Pocso court. Only after that was a complaint formally accepted. The accused were initially charged under IPC sec 376 (rape) and relevant provisions of the Pocso Act. “The accused then approached HC, which reclassified the offence, ruling that the acts did not amount to rape or attempted rape,” said Ajay Pal Singh, the lawyer representing the girl. “The charges were reduced to aggravated sexual assault under IPC section 354B and section 9(m) of Pocso Act.”
(Names of kin changed to protect identity of the minor survivor)