I want to see Gayatri Prajapati behind bars, says minor victim

The 16-year-old girl, who was allegedly sexually assaulted and her mother repeatedly gang-raped by UP minister Gayatri Prajapati and his associates, has been living in constant fear for life.

Eight months after the incident, the teenager is still to overcome the trauma and gets panic attacks, often waking up in the middle of night and trying to run away from her ward at the AIIMS in fits of frenzy.

The nightmare is not over for her yet as she fears that Prajapati's men would come looking for her. She now anxiously wants to see the minister behind bars and justice done to herself and her mother.

"I want to see Prajapati and his men who attempted to rape me behind the bars. He has ruined our lives permanently. We had to leave our hearth and home to save our lives," she told. 

Her mother, who claimed to have been repeatedly gang-raped over two years on the promise of a position in the state's ruling Samajwadi Party and sand mining contracts, moved the Supreme Court, which ordered registration of an FIR against the minister and his accomplices in the crime on February 18. 

As the UP police hunts for them, the girl is struggling to come to terms with what happened to her and her mother. She has, however, not given up hope and wants to appear for her class X examination next year. 

"I couldn't take the exams this year....our lives were in a mess." Housed in a ward at the AIIMS to which entry is restricted, the girl shudders and slips into frequent pauses while recounting the horror.

"They tried to rape me and held my mother tight as she kept crying and pleaded with them to stop. They threatened her with dire consequences before setting me free.

"After that we sought help from various quarters and even approached the state's DGP, but nothing happened even after that. Meanwhile, constant threat calls from Prajapati's men not to pursue the matter further became unbearable for us and we decided to leave UP to save our lives. My mother then approached court," she said. 

According to the doctors at the AIIMS who are treating her, the girl is in a state of "severe trauma". "She is living in constant fear. She is unable to sleep at night. Whatever has happened with her and her mother keeps coming back to her. We have put her on medication and she is undergoing behavioural therapy," they said. 

They said teams of the UP police had visited the hospital a couple of times to speak to the girl but were denied permission. 

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