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Dalit girl working as domestic help dies |
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Written by Kulwinder Sandhu
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 |
 Moga: A 19-year-old Dalit girl, working as a domestic help in the house of an influential Jat Sikh family, died under mysterious circumstances here today.
The girl identified as Veerpal Kaur is the daughter of a Dalit labourer Darshan Singh, a resident of Takhtupura Lohara village of the Nihalsinghwala subdivision of this district.
However, the police as of now had not registered any criminal case against her “employers” probably under political pressure and had initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC.
It is learnt the girl consumed some poisonous substance at about 6 am. The owner of the house, Chamkaur Singh, where she was working as a domestic help immediately took her to a nearby private clinic. The doctor after noticing signs of consuming poison referred her to the district hospital.
Eyewitnesses said when the girl was brought to the district hospital at about 7 am, she was crying loudly due to pain. She was admitted to the emergency ward of the hospital for treatment. She breathed her last at about 12 in the noon while under treatment.
During about five hours, when she was battling between life and death in the hospital, the police did not record her statement for reasons best known to it.
The senior medical officer, Gurmail Singh, while talking to The Tribune said a post-mortem examination of the body had been conducted, in which no external injury was visible. “However, we have taken a sample of her viscera that is being sent to the government laboratory at Kharar for chemical examination,” he said.
Darshan Singh, the aggrieved father, and Naseeb Kaur, mother of the girl, who were present on the hospital premises while alleging that their teenaged daughter had died of consuming some poisonous substance, said she was either murdered or forced to commit suicide.
“I am very poor, you tell me what can I do, if the police is not doing anything in this case,” cried the father of the deceased girl.
With tears in her eyes, the mother said, “If I knew, she will die, I would never have sent her to the house of an upper-caste family.”
The parents have demanded an independent inquiry into their daughter’s death from an agency other than the local police, which, they alleged, was working under political pressure to hush up the case.
(Source: The Tribune, January 31, 2010, http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100131/punjab.htm#1 ) |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 01 February 2010 )
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