Is Rape Becoming an Epidemic in Gujarat?
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SPECIAL REPORT Is rape becoming an epidemic in Gujarat? A report on the gang rapes at the be a close confidante of the chief min- tra tuition or academic assistance. As PTC College, Patan reveals a growing in- ister, Narendra Modi, hails from this she continued to shine academically, her cidence of sexual abuse in Gujarat’s edu- electoral constituency. It was during family, with five children to raise, opted cational institutions and elsewhere Patel’s tenure as education minister, to pull their son out of school so that across the state, indicative of a far over the last 10 years, that Patan wit- she could continue her education. The deeper malaise. This however has evoked nessed growing incidence of sexual ex- victim wanted to become a doctor but no genuine concern, condemnation or ploitation of its female students. because of their poor finances the fam- corrective action from the ruling BJP or Situated on the outskirts of Patan ily decided that she should enrol in the their local hero Narendra Modi. On the city, the PTC College, Patan is run by Primary Teachers’ Certificate course so contrary, the Gujarat government ap- the government’s District Institute of she could train to be a teacher and ul- pears suspiciously keen to shield the Educational Technology (DIET). timately be self-employed. She was ad- culprits and is using every possible mitted to the PTC College, Patan on July means to stifle protests for justice. 24, 2007. When the girl sought admission to the PTC College, Patan her father ap- BY DWARIKA NATH RATH pealed to a lecturer at the college, Prof Baloch, for financial assistance. Baloch HIS is not the gruesome saga assured him of help and asked another of gang rape as perpetrated on lecturer to look after the girl. Little did Bilkees Bano and many other father and daughter know that their vul- hapless Muslim women during nerability would soon lead them to this the Gujarat genocide in 2002. gruesome turn of events. TIt is the story of a girl from a poor Dalit The victim hoped to become a teacher family, a student at the PTC (Primary after she finished her college course. Teachers’ Certificate) College in Patan Innocent as she was, brought up to re- who became a victim of gang rape by spect her teachers, she had no inkling six lecturers at the college she attended. of what lay ahead, the crimes she would The lecturers at the PTC College, Patan, be subjected to by the very teachers who were empowered to conduct inter- whom she considered her gurus. Fresh- nal assessment, took advantage of the faced and naive, she, like so many other victim’s poverty and raped her 14 times girls in Gujarat, was unaware that the over four-and-a-half months on the col- college she had joined was in fact a lege campus and during an excursion world of sexual predators. that students were taken on as part of their internship. The culprits Like other incidents of this nature, On September 11, 2007, not long this incident too would have been after she was admitted into college, dumped and forgotten within the four Prof Ashwin Kumar Parmar summoned walls of the PTC College in Patan had the victim to the Educational Technol- the young victim not fainted in the ogy (ET) room after recess. Expecting college prayer hall on January 31 and nothing untoward, she went to meet but for the support she received from him in the ET room as asked. Ashwin Bharati Patel, a female lecturer, backed Parmar and two other lecturers, Manish by 97 courageous female students and Parmar and Mahendra Prajapati, were their guardians. This incident shook the already there. As she entered the room, entire state as students and others in The victim Ashwin Parmar closed the door behind Gujarat came out spontaneously to ex- The victim belongs to an impover- her. He then ripped off her clothes and press their anguish. The people of Patan ished Dalit family from Jetalvasana vil- raped her. The traumatised victim was were enraged and demanded that the lage, Visnagar taluka in Mehsana dis- then raped by the two other profes- offending lecturers be given exemplary trict. Her father is a daily labourer. A sors present in the room. The three punishment. very bright student, she secured 89 per men, who had also taken nude photo- The current minister for revenue and cent in the Class X examinations and 70 graphs of the victim on a mobile phone former education minister in the state per cent in the Class XII examinations camera, threatened her with dire con- cabinet, Anandi Patel, who is said to under her own steam, without any ex- sequences if she breathed a word to COMMUNALISM COMBAT 14 APRIL 2008 SPECIAL REPORT anyone. They now had the girl in their College in Palanpur in 2001 after she after the lecturer’s role in the Patan clutches. complained to the director, Gujarat gang rapes became public.) Fifteen days after the first incident, Council of Educational Research and Prof Manish Parmar, a relative of cur- Prof Manish Parmar called her to the Training (GCERT), about the sexual ex- rent education minister Ramanlal Vora, college laboratory where professors Kiran ploitation of students on February 27 moved around the college campus armed Patel and Suresh Patel were also present. that year. She was later reappointed to with a knife. The girls were terrified of In the laboratory, Manish Parmar and the PTC College, Patan. Bharati Patel was him. Unlike other lecturers, who grade Suresh Patel raped her and a sexually also threatened by male lecturers at the students on 50-100 marks, Manish impotent Kiran Patel sexually abused the college. Parmar, a drawing teacher at the col- victim. Jashoda Joshi: The hostel warden lege, was empowered to grade students From December 31, 2007 to January Jashoda Joshi advised the girls to on 250 internal assessment marks. 11, 2008 students of the college were ‘get used to it’ and rebuked them Manish Parmar is said to have shortlisted taken on an excursion to Khumbhwa when they complained about the 10 girls on the campus to ‘choose the village as part of their internship. Here, sexual harassment they were sub- best’ for himself. To draw up a list of professors Suresh Patel, Kiran Patel and jected to. Joshi was more concerned the top ten he used a mobile phone Manish Parmar raped the victim at 8 p.m. about the girls’ menstrual cycles and camera, video cameras, from which he on New Year’s Day. Before leaving took them to a male doctor, Lalit uploaded the images onto a computer Khumbhwa on January 11, the men Modi, for check-ups at night. In the so that he could identify the best girls. raped her again at 3.30 a.m. in the dead wake of the Patan scandal it was re- This process began as soon as students of night after a cultural programme had vealed that the lecturers visited the were admitted into the college. His sexu- concluded. girls’ hostel on the pretext of giving ally exploitative behaviour intensified Later that month, following the gang them extra tuition and thus entered during the college’s educational tours rapes by the five other lecturers, the their rooms. When students’ guard- off campus. A complaint had been filed victim was then raped by Prof Atul Patel, ians attempted to draw the warden’s against Manish Parmar with the head of the kingpin, the most influential man of the lot. On January 25, 2008 Atul The lecturers drew lots to decide which one of them Patel raped the victim in the college would be the first to rape the victim. They carried computer room. He threatened to kill condoms with them. After each incident of gang rape her if she dared to expose the truth. During this period of time, when she they forced the victim to take a strong dose of an anti- was being repeatedly subjected to gang pregnancy pill. They photographed the rapes on their rape, the traumatised victim often lost mobile phone cameras and on video cameras as well. consciousness. To discredit any overt indications of the victim’s distress These actions, their premeditation and attention to that could raise suspicion, on Septem- detail, indicate the behaviour of experienced rapists ber 13, 2007 the lecturers took her with hardened criminal minds to a witch doctor who was asked to exorcise the ‘evil spirit’ that had pos- attention to this, she responded by the GCERT more than seven years ago, sessed her. They took other girls along saying that the girls concerned were on October 17, 2000, but no action was with them on the visit in order to of immoral character. taken against him. He was known to brag engender the belief that the victim Prof Atul Patel, the kingpin of the that no one could do anything to him was possessed by evil spirits. Patan sex racket, is known to be close as he enjoyed influential support. to Anandi Patel and even led her elec- Students of the college recounted Staff at the PTC College, Patan tion campaign in 2002. He is said to that the lecturers often told them to Prof Mahendra Prajapati: MSc, BEd have been the one responsible for Prof ‘give us a smile and get marks’. They Prof Atul Patel: MSc, BEd, MPhil, PhD Bharati Patel’s transfer following her even asked the girls to apply honey Prof Suresh Patel: MA, BEd (Social complaints about the sexual harass- on their lips.