SIT to probe Mandsaur rape case: Police says 70% investigation completed, survivor's father demands death penalty for accused

As the rape of an eight-year-old girl in Mandsaur triggered  spontaneous protests in Madhya Pradesh  and some parts of the country, a special investigation team (SIT) was formed to speed up the probe. City superintendent of police Rakesh Mohan Shukla, who will head the SIT, said on Sunday that 70 percent of the investigation had been completed in the case. A blood-stained knife, the survivor’s school bag, among other things, were recovered, he was quoted as saying by PTI.  The SIT team will also include a legal advisor. The DNA samples of both the accused, identified as Irfan (20) and Asif (24) — arrested on charges of abducting and raping the minor —were sent for examination on Saturday. The police are now waiting for the survivor to recover in order to record her statement while her mother’s statement had already been recorded, Superintendent of Police (SP) Manoj Kumar Singh told PTI. The girl was abducted on 26 June from outside her school, when she was waiting for her parents to pick her up, and was raped near Laxman Darwaja Road. The accused tried to kill her by slitting her throat and also inflicted severe injuries on her face, head and private parts. Irfan was arrested on 27 June and is in police custody till 2 July while Asif, who was arrested on 29 June, is in police remand till 5 July. Survivor’s father demands death penalty for accused The father of an eight-year-old girl demanded capital punishment for the accused, saying he does not want compensation from the government. The survivor father, who works as a flower vendor in Mandsaur, told reporters: “Our family doesn’t want compensation from the government. We want the legal process in this case to be completed at the earliest and convicts be awarded death sentence as soon as possible.” [caption id=“attachment_4643641” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Candle march vigil held in Bhopal to protest against the rape of an eight-year-old girl in Mandsaur. on Sunday. PTI[/caption] Asked about the state government’s decision to extend a financial assistance worth Rs 10 lakh to his family, he said, “Money is not an issue. We only want After justice.” He also said he was satisfied with the treatment being provided to his daughter by the doctors. “Doctors from outside are also coming to treat my daughter. She would get the right treatment here. Her condition is expected to improve further in the next couple of days,” he said. Mandsaur district collector OP Shrivastava told PTI that Rs 5 lakh from the chief minister’s discretionary fund was transferred to the bank account of the survivor’s father on Saturday to provide immediate financial assistance to the family. Another installment of Rs 5 lakh will be deposited on Monday, he said. After the incident came to light, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, too, spoke in support of  capital punishment for rapists . The Madhya Pradesh Assembly had unanimously passed a Bill in 2017 awarding death penalty to those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 and below. Survivor given psychological counselling Doctors treating the survivor said that her condition was improving and she was being counselled by psychiatrists to recover from the trauma. The hospital superintendent VS Pal said that the help of psychiatrists was being taken to ensure that she recovered as soon as possible from the trauma caused by the incident. “After the incident, the child was in shock and was very scared. But now her face shows less fear than earlier,” Pal, himself a psychiatrist, told reporters on Sunday. After counselling the minor survivor, psychiatrist Swati Prasad said, “The child is talking about things which she likes, such as her favourite game, food and TV serial etc. These are very positive signs which means she is recovering from the trauma. Gradually her mental state will get stronger.” Mumbai-based senior paediatric surgeon Ravi Ramadwar, who was called in by the state government to help the survivor, said that her treatment was headed in the right direction. “The girl’s treatment is moving in the right direction and it is expected that she will come out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) soon,” Ramadwar was quoted as saying by PTI. Meanwhile, the BJP’s national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain, who met the victim and doctors at the hospital, said that she was the “daughter of the entire country” and all 125 crore Indians were with her. “The trial of this case will be conducted in a fast track court,” Hussain said. He added that the Narendra Modi government had approved the ordinance which has a provision of death penalty for those convicted of raping minors below the age of 12. The BJP leader praised residents of Ringnod, the village from which one of the accused, Irfan, hails, for proclaiming that they would not allow his body (in case he is given the death sentence) to be buried in the village graveyard. “It is good that the people of victim’s village have said that they will not let his body be buried in their village,” he said. Another BJP leader Sanjeev Mishra offered a bounty of Rs. 5 lakh for beheading the accused.

We demand capital punishment for the accused. If Court or administration is not capable of doing it, I have said I will give Rs. 5 Lakh to the person who beheads the accused and gets his head: Sanjeev Mishra, BJP on Mandsaur gang rape #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/VfZMijdtBH

— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2018

On Saturday evening, Congress workers led by senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, had taken out a candle march in protest against the Mandsaur gangrape case. The protesters alleged that Madhya Pradesh had become “the national capital of rape” under the BJP government. Earlier, a controversy erupted when a BJP MLA from Indore, Sudarshan Gupta, along with Mandsaur-Neemuch MP Sudhir Gupta, met the victim’s parents. A video of the 29 June meeting purportedly showed the MLA telling the victim’s parents that they should "thank" the MP for visiting them. MLA Gupta, however, claimed that the video had been doctored by the Congress. “The Mandsaur MP and I were the first to meet the victim’s family and we had assured them all possible assistance. This, however, was not shown in the video. The Congress is running out of issues and is creating a hue and cry by doctoring the video,” he alleged. Meanwhile in Bhopal, the BJP’s minority cell leaders, led its state working committee member Mohammed Taufiq, staged a protest at Iqbal Maidan and demanded the death penalty for the two accused. A similar protest was also held in Mandsaur. CPM hit out at the BJP government and claimed that the saffron party was “busy giving a communal colour” in Mandsaur case, while it had supported the rapists in the Kathua and Unnao rape cases.

Govt's commitment to women safety like all its other promises is a Jumla. Worse, in case of #Kathua & #Unnao cases BJP came out in support of the rapists while in #Mandsaur they are busy giving it a communal colour!
Govt must be held accountable for such heinous crimes. pic.twitter.com/2vjn2UK1a6

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) July 1, 2018

With inputs from PTI