A 45-year-old businessman, living in a rented apartment at The Belaire, rapes his daughter's close friend during a sleepover.
While our prime minister tiptoed around his garden posting yoga videos, our country slid further down on the key parameters of women's safety. So, no surprises when media went rife with reports of how India fared worse than war-torn Afghanistan and Syria on women's issues in a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey.
Were we expecting any different!
Just today, I woke up to the news of an 18-year-old being raped by her friend's sloshed father during a sleepover. And this happened not in some village in violent UP. This happened at The Belaire in DLF 5.
Here’s what the story said:
A 45-year-old businessman, living in a rented apartment at The Belaire, had his daughter visiting from abroad. She called her friend over on Thursday for a sleepover. The father took the girls out for drinks and dinner at Cyber Hub. They came back, with the father completely inebriated. The victim went to her friend’s room to sleep.
The wife was out of town.
Between 4 and 5 am on Friday, the father walked into his daughter’s bedroom and called the victim out to talk. He then pulled her to his room, locked the room from inside and raped her. He also threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone.
The friend and the victim left the house around 10 am and went to the victim’s house. The victim informed her mother, after which they went to the police station.
A case was registered under IPC Sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 328 (causing hurt by means of poison) at the women’s police station in Sector 51.
The accused was arrested on Friday, within three hours of receiving the complaint.
The report also said the victim and the daughter were friends since childhood and she had been visiting their house since school days!
As a mother of a ten-year-old I am appalled. My daughter too has sleepovers — sometimes, she goes over; sometimes her friends come down. Am I wrong in letting my daughter live freely? Am I wrong in not striking fear in her heart about the intentions of men? Will I feel alright about sending her over now? Perhaps not.
But I want my daughter have her place under the sun — I don’t want her to look back in dread every time she walks down a lane on her own.
Is that too much to ask?
