THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Bal Ram Sampla
Geopolitics
When a 15-year-old girl takes her own life just days after testifying in a rape case, the word “tragedy” is an understatement. It is a systemic failure. But when that girl belongs to a marginalized community, like the Dalit community in Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, a dark and familiar pattern emerges.
The line between a suicide driven by trauma and a death forced by foul play becomes dangerously thin.
The immediate official response is almost always predictable: blame the victim’s emotional distress. Label it a closed case of suicide. But we have to look closer. Did she face intense, unyielding pressure from the accused’s family to drop the charges? Was she threatened into silence? In many cases, “abetment to suicide” is just a legal term for a slow, psychological execution.
Worse still is the looming shadow of an institutional cover-up. Far too often, local authorities move quickly to contain public outrage rather than uncover the truth.
Protecting the powerful, shielding local interests, and rushing a cremation or a forensic report are tactics used to bury evidence before a real investigation even begins.
When the system protects the predator and isolates the survivor, it is complicit. We cannot just mourn a tragic suicide when the circumstances scream of coercion, intimidation, or a staged crime scene. True justice demands that we question the official narrative, demand absolute transparency from the police, and refuse to let another young voice be silenced twice.
Source
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bareilly/15yo-dalit-rape-survivor-dies-by-suicide-in-kheri/articleshow/132373346.cms?hl=en-
