It has been seven long years, but uncertainty and anxiety still loom large over 22-year old Lakshmi (name changed) of a remote village in Cuddalore district, as the unwed mother spends every other day unsure and confused over what the future holds for her and her six-year-old daughter.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone , the rape survivor, whose case has been referred for mediation by a single judge of the Madras High Court, says she was not aware of the order but mediation was initiated even earlier by the family of the convict, who, incidentally, lives just next door in her village.
“But how can I live with him? Would he accept the solution if it had happened to one of his sisters? Not even once has he visited us. He has not even touched this girl even once. He has been maintaining that she was not his child until the DNA test. Why has he not come for a compromise before he was jailed,” she asks, pertinently. The incident happened when she was in Class 10 and the convict was a college-goer in Chennai and visited his native place on weekends.
“He is coming for a compromise so that he can be out of prison. I hate the very sight of him and how can I live with him as man and wife? I don’t have any sense of belonging to him,” she says. Over seven years since, the survivor, presently being supported by her relatives is still confused over how to settle this overwhelming issue in her life.
“How can I live in this world with this girl? If not for my daughter, I would have remained this way. But what will happen to me and my daughter now? After my mother, who will take care of us?”
Convict’s family
made mediation attempts even
earlier, says victim
