Four-year-old Seoni rape victim airlifted to Nagpur

Manjari Mishra, TNN | Apr 21, 2013,

JABALPUR: With her sexually brutalized four-year-old granddaughter Rani (name changed) battling death for 48 hours in ICU on Saturday afternoon, after having been raped on April 17 night by a 35-year-old in Ghansaur village ofSeoni district, 180 km from Jabalpur, Himma Baifervently asked God to grant her just one wish – send down a helicopter to fly the child off to Dilli.And even as her family, especially Rani’s mother Ramkumari did not share such optimism, Himma Bai’s wish came true.

Facing flak, the government airlifted the girl to Nagpur for better treatment.

As the issue threatened to snowball into a major embarrassment for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, putting a big question mark over his much hyped image of the savior of girl child, state government decided to alirlift Rani from Jabalpur to Nagpur, 280 km away, by late night.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested accomplice Rakesh Chaudhary while main accused 35-year-old welder from Jhabua Power Plant, Firoz Khan, is still at large. Teams have been sent to Bihar his home state and Delhi to trace Khan, Sanjay Jha, inspector general of police (IG) Jabalpur, told TOI.

Last 48 hours since they found a profusely bleeding Rani abandoned in the village crematorium clearly showed on Ramkumari when TOI contacted her in the private nursing home in Jabalpur. Watching the team of doctors flitting in and out of the room on Saturday afternoon Ramkumari looked totally lost. Apart from lacerations, tears and bruises, the child, according to attending gynecologist Dr Pragya Dheeravani, had suffered hypoxia of brain induced by suffocation. Already on life support system her condition was fast deteriorating.

While the state government has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh, the cost of treatment is being borne by Jhabua Power Plant where the accused is working.

The main accused was known to her brother Shyam and frequented her house. So the woman had found nothing unusual to see Khan chatting up with Rani on Thursday evening. Panic struck when the child failed to turn up till late evening even as her younger brother “gone to buy biscuits with Khan” arrived home.

The family launched a hunt and finally found an unconscious Rani lying in the cremation ground. With the man of the house Ghassi Yadav, a construction worker in Pune, away, it was Shyam who rushed her to the village dai and was told the girl was raped and must be taken immediately to Jabalpur medical college. They could reach Jabalpur medical college after two hours of road journey and Rani was brought to the emergency. But soon they had to move to a private hospital.

The young mother continued to look morose and troubled as she reluctantly accompanied the sinking Rani along with the medical team to the airport to board the chopper. Reason? She has two more girls back home in Ghansaur who need to be guarded.