I’m a dead man breathing: Father of Dehradun school rape survivor

“After what has happened with my daughter in the school, I am a dead man... just breathing,” said father of the 16-year-old gang rape survivor, minutes after his daughter recorded her statement before a magistrate here on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, her statement could not be recorded because of prolonged argument in the case when all the nine accused, including five school officials and four students, were produced before the court. Six adults, including a student, were sent to judicial remand of 14 days while the other three were sent to juvenile home.

“My world is destroyed,” the father said. “My world revolved around my daughter on whom such a heinous crime has been committed. For what has happened, the school administration is responsible. They should have taken action against the accused boys by informing the incident to the police; instead, they tried to cover it up,” he said.

Venting out his ire at the school administration, he urged other parents to “do all the homework before enrolling their children in a boarding school”.

“I got my daughter admitted to this boarding school believing that she was safe and would get good education. But I was shocked when I was informed about the incident. I would like to urge other parents that before enrolling their kids in any boarding school, they should not only check the school security arrangements but also its background with the local police,” he said.

In the court, the girl’s counsel Aruna Negi Chauhan said that one of the five arrested school officials conducted a pregnancy test on the victim inside the school and told her that she was pregnant. “It was after that they brought her to a clinic to carry out abortion,” she said.

“The school administration was fully aware of the whole incident and tried to give her home-made drinks and medicines, which could have proved fatal for her,” Chauhan added.