- Daughter disappears after activist
campaigns against atrocity on Bengal woman
Lucknow, Feb. 18: A rights activist’s daughter has been kidnapped after
he campaigned against a Bengal woman’s rape by a rich businessman.
V.K. Rai had launched a movement in early February against Ghulam
Rasool, one of the richest carpet traders of Bhadohi in eastern Uttar
Pradesh.
Rasool, accused of using a 25-year-old woman from Murshidabad as a sex
slave for 12 years, was arrested yesterday.
But Rai, the founder secretary of the Centre for Environment and Rural
Technology, is now in Lucknow, staging demonstrations against the
government’s failure to trace or rescue his daughter.
Rachna Rai, 20, was kidnapped in hometown Bhadohi on February 8, a day
after her father had organised a daylong protest against Rasool, joined
in by 5,000 people, including lawyers, teachers, students, trade bodies
and women’s groups.
The activist today alleged his daughter was kidnapped to pressure him
to withdraw the campaign against Rasool, whose factory has a turnover
of over Rs 30 crore.
“I suspect Rasool’s men have abducted her,” Rai, who arrived here on
Saturday, said today.
Social activists of Lucknow, including Magsaysay winner Sandeep Pandey,
have launched a sit-in since yesterday, demanding immediate rescue of
Rachna.
Rasool was arrested on the basis of the Murshidabad woman’s police
statement of February 5.
“I became the mother of Rasool’s son because of the regular rapes. My
son is two-and-a-half years old. I am pregnant with a second child from
him,” she told S.N. Sabat, deputy inspector-general of police, Mirzapur
(neighbouring Bhadohi).
She alleged that Rasool never let her out alone and so her plight
remained unknown till she managed to send a letter to Rai.
Bhadohi has a thriving carpet industry that illegally employs child
labourers, many of them from Bengal. The victim said her mother sent
her to work in Rasool’s factory when she was 13 and her ordeal began
almost immediately.
Rachna, a second-year BA student, was kidnapped on her way to K.N.P.S.
College. “She left home at 9.30am but never reached her college,” Rai
said.
“The police are investigating the abduction and the rape, and the
alleged rapist has been arrested. We hope to find the activist’s
daughter soon,” said the superintendent of police, Bhadohi, S.N.
Upadhyay.
Rasool’s lawyer Majhar Shaqueel said the kidnapping and the serial
rapes were not connected and that his client was innocent of both
charges.
Rai’s agitation has the support of many independent rights groups, such
as the Women’s Health Right Forum and the Men’s Action for Stopping
Violence against Women.
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