Recently feudal criminals in Sonadiha village at Konch Thana, Gaya District perpetrated the heinous crime of gang rape against a woman and her daughter after tying the husband to a tree. The CPI(ML) in protest organized a Guraru bandh on the next day 15 June and district level protests on 16 June. A team including AIPWA Bihar President Saroj Choube, Rita Barnwal, Kunti Devi, Upendra Yadav and Seedhi Yadav visited the spot and enquired into the incident. They met the victim family and probed the facts of the incident.
The enquiry team said that this area has always been dominated by landlords-criminals from the Bhumihar caste. In recent times the morale of these forces has been boosted because of the open protection given to them by the BJP. As a result these forces were emboldened and committed this brutal and inhuman crime without fear.
Moreover, they are also threatening the victim family members who have started changing their statement due to fear. At first they had stated that they can identify the perpetrators but now they have changed their stand.
Clearly they are under immense pressure. The police is now constructing a new story and saying that the perpetrators were not the Bhumihars of the area but members of the Paswan community from Kamaldah village at a distance of 25 km. The administration is conducting raids on that village on the basis that the British Raj had identified it as a village of thieves. The CPI(ML) strongly condemns this attitude.
The CPI(ML) has demanded from the administration to provide security to the victim family. The victim is in acute mental trauma and requires comprehensive care and treatment. But instead the family is being subjected to threats. The CPI(ML) demands safety and security for the victims, treatment for the rape victim, immediate arrest of the rapists and criminals, and a fast-track court speedy trial for conviction and punishment. They have also demanded that the DM and SP should be held accountable for such type of incidents.
