The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) on Saturday accused the Sangh Parivar of “exploiting the distress’’ of the young woman from Meerut who has filed a case alleging gang-rape and conversion. Stating that the complainant herself has said that the signature on the affidavit claiming she had been converted was forged, AIDWA condemned the “blatant lies and half-truths’’ being spread by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its sister organizations.
A three-member AIDWA delegation, headed by Vice-president Subhashini Ali, had visited Meerut on Friday to meet the complainant and her family members. “The delegation found that there are many issues which remain unexplained. While the word of the victim must get precedence and form the basis for the inquiry, given the circumstances of the case being used for highly motivated communal propaganda, it is incumbent on the Government and the police to complete the investigations speedily so that the truth is revealed. There is every possibility that the young woman is being used as a pawn by the communal forces who are utterly insensitive and uncaring about her condition,’’ the AIDWA report concluded.
Demanding that the Government take care of her medical requirements and ensure her rehabilitation, AIDWA said the complainant had left the madarsa where she was teaching in February to prepare for her final B. A. examination. “There was no complaint of any kind of harassment made by her during her period of teaching at the madrasa.’’
Also, according to AIDWA, the young woman went missing for four days from July 23 but this was not reported to the police by her family. The AIDWA report states that it has since been confirmed by family members and the Government District Medical College Hospital that she underwent a gynaecological surgical procedure during this time. It was only when she went missing for the second time on July 29 that the family filed a missing person report and even then they did not mention apprehension of abduction.
The report further states that it was on her return home on July 29 that the complainant first mentioned being gang-raped and the issue of “forced conversion’’ was also raised at this juncture. The family showed the AIDWA delegation a copy of an affidavit in which she is said to have admitted to converting to Islam “out of her own free will’’ but maintained that her signature on the document had been forged.
