The young ex-convict in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case will find his home village in Baduan district forgiving. “Let bygones be bygones,” is a common refrain here. The people blame Delhi for turning him into a monster. His family — which lives in a tiny hutment that did not even have a proper roof until last year — remains in the dark as far as his homecoming is concerned. His father is mentally unstable; his mother has not been keeping well.
Youth’s past is past: villagers
Away from the heat and dust of the capital where his imminent release has created a furore, a far gentler reception awaits the juvenile convict in the December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang-rape case in his native village.
“He was a good boy till he lived here, Delhi made him a monster,” said Nathu Ram, 60, a former village headman. “He left the village when he was very young. We can scarcely believe he has done something as brutal as you people in Delhi claim he did. If he comes back to live here, we do not have a problem. He might even become a better person if he starts living here — we do not have even a single history-sheeter here.”
“Let bygones be bygones,” is a common refrain here. Babu, a distant cousin of the now 20-year-old convict, remembered him as someone who would not get into fights with other children. “Three years is enough of a punishment for him. The court should just release him and send him back to the village now. His family needs him, they are dying of poverty,” he said.
While the Delhi government has worked out a rehabilitation plan for him, his family — which lives in a tiny hutment that did not even have a proper roof until last year — remains in the dark as far as his homecoming is concerned.
His father, who is mentally unstable, has no idea what is going on; two younger brothers, aged eight and 10, are bemused by all the media attention their house has been getting for the past few days; and distant relatives are, well, keeping a safe distance.
His mother, who has not been keeping well for the past few days, said her son used to send money home after he moved to Delhi to work, but that stopped with his conviction. She is often forced to resort to asking visitors for financial help nowadays.
“We hardly have any money to feed ourselves. I don’t know if he is coming back home or they are taking him somewhere else but if he does come here, he can at least earn our daily bread,” she said.
