She did not wear revealing clothes. She was not out with her boyfriend at an ungodly hour. She did not board a bus. She is not 23. So when her illiterate mother asks us 'What did he see in my daughter to rape her?', Mirror has no answer. She is only six. She was playing with her brothers outside her temporary shed, adjacent to the construction site where her father worked. Her family was happy to be living here because it was not always that her father, a daily wage labourer, got work. Since a commercial complex was coming up near Thaltej, her father was called to work every day.
The six-year-old is the only daughter in the family. Her older brother is seven. She has three brothers, the youngest being just five-months old. None of the kids go to school. They rarely have a full meal. "We hardly have any food. We go to bed hungry when my husband does not get majoori kaam. The school sounds good, but where is the money," her mother asks. And then, with tears welling up in her tired eyes, she asks a pointed question, "You all are learned people.
Can you tell me why he did that to a child?"
WHERE IS YOUR ANGER, AHMEDABAD?
We will call her baby Nirbhaya, hoping the name shakes up the sleeping consciousness of our society, which even four days after the incident, has not bothered to make noise. On Friday, March 6, around 11.15 am, baby Nirbhaya came to her mother crying. Her frock was soaked in blood. "She was in terrible pain and would not stop crying. She pointed her fingers at the site's security guard who was standing a few feet away from us. She told me, 'he did it' and I understood," her mother told this newspaper. The illiterate mother called up her husband and they rushed the child to Sola Civil Hospital. By then even the cops had reached the spot. Later, in the night, the doctors referred her to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and she was shifted there. Investigation revealed horrific details, the kind that we last heard when the Nirbhaya case was first reported.
'12 MM IRON ROD INSERTED INTO HER'
The security guard, 20-year-old Kaushal Chauhan, in an act of perversion, inserted a 12 mm-thick four and-a-half-fott rod into the girl. He claimed he was drunk. Kaushal is not voluble like Delhi rape accused Mukesh Singh. He is a regular boy with no criminal history, always helpful to his neighbours. He ran a panipuri laari, but took up the guard's job through a local agency after his business bombed. Ahmedabad police now has his confession. He has reportedly told them that he is the one who did it because he "just felt like doing it". According to the police, Kaushal took her to the basement of the under-construction complex and inserted the iron rod in her vagina.
TORN RECTUM, DAMAGE TO INTERNAL ORGANS
With third degree perennial tear, serious rectum and vaginal injuries, the damage to internal organs is beyond shocking. Her haemoglobin level has dropped to 3 due to acute blood loss. The doctors performed a three-hour operation on baby Nirbhaya. While they have tried to stitch her organs up, internal lacerations and serious harm to the genitalia has forced them to surgically open her intestine to let her pass urine and stool. A senior doctor confirmed to Mirror that even after surgery there are chances of her condition getting worse. "We fear rupturing. Her intestines have been surgically opened through the left side of her lower abdomen so that she can pass urine and stool."
'MY SON IS INNOCENT'
Kaushal's mother Sunitadevi says her son is innocent and is being framed. When told that he had confessed to his crime, she said, "It is not possible. This is a conspiracy." She also adds, "My son was drunk at that time. So, he has been framed." She does outrage about the assault on the child though, but in the same breath insists her son could have never done it. "It is very wrong, but my son has not done it." Kaushal's neighbours at Ajanta Ellora Housing Society in Thaltej vouch for his character. "He is a very straightforward guy who respects women," says a neighbour.
BLOOD COVERS 19 CM OF THE IRON ROD: FSL
But his confession and the bloodstained iron rod contradicts these claims. The cops sent the rod to the forensic science laboratory for examination. The FSL experts found blood stains till 19 cm of the road, suggesting that it was thrust with a lot of force into the girl. Baby Nirbhaya, who was battling for her life on Friday, is out of danger. But the pain makes it impossible for her to sleep for more than a few minutes. She wakes up with a jerk and lets out a scream as though she lived the nightmare again. This happens quite often throughout the day. When she sees her mother sitting next to her, trying to put her five-month-old brother to sleep, she feels better. A patient has been generous enough to give her mother a green dupatta, which she has tied on to the legs of two adjacent cots, to cradle her son. But nobody visits them. Even as a host of organisations celebrated Women's Day and Girl Safety Week, not a single non-governmental organisation has to come to the aid of Baby Nirbhaya or her mother since Friday. Ironically, Gujarat has the highest number of NGOs registered in the country. And, not to forget, Ahmedabad is perceived as one of the safest cities in the country for women. Baby Nirbhaya's alcoholic father, too, was banned from the hospital premises after he entered the ward in an inebriated state and abused the staff. "I need help, but don't give me any money. I will be forced to give it away to my husband," she pleads.
DOCS LOOKING AFTER MOTHER, KIDS
An efficient and a caring team of doctors is all Baby Nirbhaya and her mother has. Dr Rakesh Joshi, head of paediatric surgery, assistant professors Dr Mitesh Bachani and Dr Amrita Patel, assistant professor and gynaecology department's head of the unit Dr Tejas Patel are the ones looking after them. They are the ones going out of the way to ensure the mother and her children don't go without food. The victim's brothers have found playmates here. And now they even get to drink milk at the hospital, a luxury which they could not afford at home. "She has no home as such. A protective sigmoid colostomy has been performed on her. Even if she leaves the hospital after three weeks, we are scared that she may develop infection. She will need a closure colostomy to ensure natural urine flow after two months," said a doctor. There are injuries near her ovary which are likely to manifest as Baby Nirbhaya grows up. But what damage it can cause, the doctors cannot say at this point of time.
'I ONLY WANT HER TO GET WELL SOON'
Civil Hospital 's medical superintendent Dr M M Prabhakar who has ensured that Baby Nirbhaya gets the best treatment told Mirror that State Women Commision has also approached the hospital and offered help. Meanwhile, punishment for the accused is not even on the mind of Baby Nirbhaya's mother. "I do not know what the punishment is for such a crime and I am not even thinking about it right now. I thought such things happened only to older women. My girl is just six. I only want her to get well soon." "The statement of the victim's mother was taken in the presence of Mahila Sangathan. Kaushal is the only accused in the case. So, we have arrested him," said A division officer B Z Patel.
NOTABLE QUOTES
Meanwhile, NGOs that had crusaded against the Delhi rape, seem to be reeling under compassion fatigue, already. Asked why no protest rallies for this brutal rape case, some of them had standard, pre-rehearsed, heard-this-before kind of responses...as if rapes are so common in Indian society that one could only do so much about it.
AWAG recently took out a rally along with 10 other NGOs to protest against rapes taking place across India. So, we are not conducting any other rally to protest against this particular case. We have written applications to various govt authorities to ban TV and print ads that objectify women. - SARABEN BALDIWALA, Ahmedabad Women's Action Group (AWAG)
After this brutal case of rape, we are forming a group of activists to work on spreading awareness among people. Bringing about change in mindsets is required which is possible by discussing the cause of rapes in the country. - GAUTAM THAKER, General Secretary of People's Union for Civil Liberties, Gujarat
We had conducted a protest rally at Lal Darwaza to spread awareness about the abuse against women. Moreover, the accused has been arrested. We have submitted an application to police chief to stop allowing cheap plays at Town Hall. - MEENAKSHI JOSHI, All India Mahila Sanskrutik Sangh
