Majlis

Rape of a Minor in Remand Home

In the year 1997, we initiated a public interest litigation based on a newspaper report about the rape of a deaf and mute minor girl in the Government Remand Home at Dongri. The case came to light, when doctors at a public hospital where she was admitted due to convulsions following the rape, noticed the brutal injuries and extreme violations and registered the case. The authorities at the rescue home had not concerned themselves with the rape nor had registered a case. Upon her recovery, the girl was to be sent back to the same home. It was at this point that we stepped in.

After preliminary investigations, we filed a public interest litigation. Our immediate concern was to shift the girl into a safer place and the long-term objective was to bring the culprit to book and secure damages from the state institution. The short-term goal was achieved immediately. The High Court granted permission to shift the child into a non-governmental agency. Rs.50,000/- was awarded as interim compensation. But the area that had been the
	most difficult was to identify the accused and prosecute him. Despite a CBI enquiry, the investigations did not yield any results due to the collusion between police agencies and remand home officials. At a more practical level, we were able to shift the girl to a safer home away from Mumbai, inspite of the extreme hostility from the police and govt. officials.