By Suresh Jogesh:
Delta was a 17-year-old Dalit girl from a village near the Pakistan border in Barmer district of Rajasthan. She was pursuing her BSTC (Basic School Training Certificate) (a course after 10+2, to become a school teacher) from Jain Adarsh teacher training institute for girls in Nokha, Bikaner (Rajasthan).
She was a brilliant student and an amazing painter having topped in an art competition in Rajasthan when she was in 12th standard. One of her artworks was featured in an art magazine published by the Rajasthan Secretariat in 2006 when she was just 7 years old.
On the morning of March 29, her body was found in the water tank of her hostel under suspicious conditions. Police took her body in a municipal garbage carrying vehicle (tractor) without video graphing it. According to the institute, she committed suicide because they allegedly caught her in the PT teacher’s room, and that they had warned both and asked them to write an apology.
Now, the question is, why did the institute not inform her parents? And why was a complaint not filed against the PT teacher since she was a minor?
According to the FIR filed by her parents, there were only four girls at the hostel as all the other girls had gone home. She came back along with her father on the morning of the 28th. Later, in the evening, at eight o’clock, she called her father and said that their Warden had sent her to the PT instructor’s room to be his helper with the excuse that the hostel needed to be cleaned. There, he had raped her. She seemed very scared while narrating the incident, according to her parents.
While her parents came out with all the information of this incident, the institute took a written apology from both her and the PT instructor stating that this incident happened with mutual consent. Delta’s parents allege that this is murder as the institute has very influential people and wanted to downplay the incident.
Although the complete post-mortem report is yet to arrive, there are possible indications in the preliminary report (in possession of Youth Ki Awaaz) that water was not found in her lungs raising doubts about it being a suicide. Police and the administration have not said anything about the cause of death.
Now, the question is, why has the police not taken the institute director in custody for interrogation since they claim that she committed suicide by jumping into the water tank?