In a shocking development, it was reported that the father of the Kathua rape and murder victim has been duped of almost the entire donation money that was deposited in his bank account. The donation money has been siphoned off his bank account by ‘anonymous people’. He had gone to the Jammu & Kashmir Bank for withdrawing some money and he was in for a rude shock. He said, “Someone has withdrawn more than Rs 10 lakh from our joint account. We have no information about it. There was more than 20 lakh in this account. We have got the statement now, which shows withdrawal. We are only left with Rs 35,000 in the account. We were even told over Rs 1 crore had been donated from all over the world, but don’t know where it went.”
As per the father of the rape victim, Rs. 10 lakh donation money has been debited within a period of three months through several transactions but not by the holder. One Aslam Khan is said to have withdrawn Rs. 2 lakhs on January 11, 14, 15 and 18. The family of the victim is illiterate and report to thumb impressions for banking transactions. The fear, therefore, is whether someone got unauthorised access to approved cheques and is now using them in order to siphon off money from the joint account. According to the father of the victim, only Rs. 35,000 are now left in the account. Clueless and dejected, the victim’s father said, “Where has the money gone? We are uneducated and do not know what happened.”
Last year, a News18 report had brought to light how the family of the Kathua rape victim had to sell off their livestock to pay expenses of travelling from Kargil, 530 km down to Pathankot, where a trial court is hearing the matter. At that time, the father of the victim had stated, “I had to attend court three to four times. Each time I had to travel, I sold some of my sheep and goat to pay for the expenses.” In an earlier report, The Tribune had quoted the Kathua victim’s mother saying, “The so-called social activists and politicians, who were in the forefront of the campaign seeking justice, brazenly exploited the brutality committed on my daughter and abandoned us after achieving petty personal goals.” She had further added, “Except exploiting the incident for their personal goals, the so-called activists have done nothing to ensure justice to my daughter. We want exemplary punishment for those who committed the heinous crime.”
Talib Hussain who had been at the forefront for demanding justice for the girl child, was later arrested over rape charges. However, JNU student leader, Shehla had refuted The Tribune report. She had also claimed that she had personally met the biological parents of the victim after funds were transferred and that they had no complaints.
The father of the victim also seems shocked about the absence of the leaders who had come to help him initially. He wondered, “I do not know where those leaders are? Initially many came and helped. They did not approach me recently.” The father of the victim doesn’t know that Talib Hussain has gone on to join the Mehbooba Mufti led PDP while the JNU leader has now joined ex IAS officer Shah Faesal’s party.