Cachar: Two men allegedly rape widow before chopping her fingers: "Police not taking any action," Survivour

A shocking and brutal incident of sexual violence has come to light yet again from Cachar, Assam. The incident occurred at Punihawai, Dholai; two weeks have passed since the complaint was registered, but police are yet to apprehend the culprits. Moreover, the survivor is facing life threats and intimidation from the perpetrators.

The survivor is a widow who dwells with her infant son alone; and she gave a spine-chilling description of the heinous crime that was unleashed on her. According to the survivor’s description, two men, namely Maniruddin and Riyaz from Bidyaratanpur village, trespassed into survivor’s house by breaking the wall with a sharp weapon at around 4 am on October 25. Survivor and her son were asleep, and one of the trespassers took her son into their custody and threatened her that they would kill her son.

Meanwhile, the other sexually assaulted her, and then they tried to kill her with the machete. The survivor lost four fingers of her left hand in the process.

“I have no one of my own, my parents died long before, even my husband is no more, I stay alone with my son. They have chopped off my fingers, now; how am I supposed to survive? How am I supposed to feed my son?” said the survivor, as she was trying to control her tears.

“They (perpetrators) are from a well-off family; they have given money to the police, so the police haven’t been able to arrest even criminals,” survivor complained.

The survivor also said that she is staying her nights at roads, public places, and living life in penury by begging with the infant son on her lap. She said that her molesters have threatened her regarding police cases and warned her not to return home. She fears that as she stays alone and owns few properties, so they are looking to occupy her property by violence and intimidation.

As per the data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Assam has reported the highest rate of crimes against women among all states and union territories for the last three consecutive years (2016-2019) for which official data are available. Assam’s rate of crimes against women is higher than the Indian average–in 2019, Assam’s crime rate (per 100,000 female population) was nearly thrice the Indian average. Last year, Assam recorded 26 instances of rape-cum-murder/gang rape—the third-highest figure in the country after Uttar Pradesh (31) and Madhya Pradesh (27). It recorded 1,658 cases of rape last year. There were 4,642 cases of assault with intention of outraging modesty. The trend of increasing crimes against women in Assam is also noted in gender-based violence data collated in the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS) 2019-20.