Delhi rape: Can't demand mercy for sons, says mother of accused

by Renu Karauli (Rajasthan): She says she didn’t take take her five sons to Delhi for this day. Kalyani Devi, the mother of Ram and Mukesh Singh, two of the six accused in the Sunday’s horrific gang-rape on a moving bus in Delhi, has been crying ever since a Delhi police team picked up her youngest son, Mukesh, from their home in Kalladah village in Rajasthan’s Karauli district. Mukesh’s elder brother Ram Singh is the prime accused in the case and was reportedly the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old student was brutally gangraped. Kalyani, along with her septuagenarian husband Mangi Lal, lives a destitute life in a small mud house with a thatched roof on the banks of Bhadravati river. Mukesh came to them in the dead of night on Monday, but a Delhi police team was close on his heels and picked him early Tuesday morning. “I can’t demand mercy for them for what they have done, but I am worried about us… who will give us food now,” she says. [caption id=“attachment_565456” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kalyani said that her two arrested sons took care of them. Image courtesy: Renu[/caption] Kalyani says Mukesh told her that a crime had taken place on their bus and his brother Ram was missing. He thought his brother might have come to Karauli to escape the police. But the aging couple didn’t realise how horrific a crime they had committed before the Delhi cops arrived. She doesn’t plead mercy for her sons, but the frail woman has been inconsolable since Tuesday. There’s no one to share her grief — her husband also breaks down at any mention of the incident. One has to walk a kilometre and a half on foot trails through undulating mud mounds in the Karauli ravines to reach Kalladah where houses are spread out. Bhadravati is a seasonal river and there’s knee-deep water in it presently. Mangi Lal’s house is on the other side of the river. One has to  balance on a used tractor tube placed between two wooden planks placed at right angles to each other. A string has been tied across the river for taking the tube to the opposite bank. Villages in this part of eastern Rajasthan are spread out in large areas with long distances between two houses. There’s no house near Mangi Lal’s for about half a kilometre. The couple own a small tract of land which they have outsourced for wheat farming. Mangli Lal had a dispute with his elder brother over land in Kalladah. About 20 years back, the couple migrated to Delhi with their five sons and raised them doing odd jobs. The elder son, Raju, is a private electrician while Madhu, the second, works at Jal Board. Ram Singh, Suresh and Mukesh, work as drivers. Suresh drives a personal car while Ram Singh and Mukesh drive private buses. Between sobs Kalyani says it was Ram Singh and Mukesh who looked after them in Delhi; the other three didn’t care for them and lived separately. [caption id=“attachment_565483” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  The father of the two men blamed bad company for his sons’ conduct. Image courtesy Renu[/caption] “They were not like this. In 20 years, they have never committed a crime. They must have been in bad company. As regards alcohol, that’s common among drivers,” he manages to say before words fail him and tears start rolling down his weathered cheeks. There’s an Indica car (No. DL 4CU 0058) parked at the house. There’s another vehicle with Delhi registration number — and Honda Activa (DL 1S N0237). Kalyani says Mukesh brought this car here four months back. “There’s no train link between Karauli and Delhi so he brought this to take us to Delhi,” Kalyani offers as an explanation, despite not being asked.