Maharashtra Women Commission chairperson Rupali Chakankar, on Thursday, met the family of 30 year old lady who was gangraped and murdered at Shilphata temple. Chakankar promised the family of the deceased in Koparkhairane, that she has demanded that the case should tried on fast track.
“We are also demanding that the accused be hanged till death. The police has also been asked to satisfy all the questions of the family in the case,” Chakankar said.
She further praised the police officials of Shil Daighar police station who cracked the case in a very less period of time and arrested the accused. “One should question do the priests in the temple, asked to submit any character certificate while a responsibility of looking after the temple is entrusted upon them. Do they get proper training from any gurukul. Its time that these things should be looked upon to avoid such instances of violence,” she said, adding, “Women often face domestic issues at home and many a times they feel like leaving the house.
In this case if the deceased lady would have gone to ‘One Stop Centre’ instead of the temple, she probably would have been alive. Not many know of the initiative-‘One Stop Centre’ by the government which is made for the women facing domestic issues. In such instances, she should go to the centre instead of going anywhere else.”
On July 6, the deceased lady had left her residence at around 6 am after a fight with her husband and mother-in-law. She had reached Ghol Ganapati temple at Shilphata at around 10 am and then she sat through the day at the temple, all alone.
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The temporary priest of the temple, Santoshkumar Ramyagna Mishra, 45, who had noticed the lady in the temple offered her tea late in the evening which was spiked with cannabis. After she was intoxicated, Mishra along with his friends, Rajkumar Rampher Pandey, 54 and Shamsundar Pyarchand Sharma, 62, took turns to rape her. The next day morning, when she came into her senses and found herself half clothed and injured, she raised an alarm following which she was killed by banging her head on the floor of the store room of temple and the n strangulated. The body remained in the store room for one whole day and on July 8, they threw the body in the valley which was noticed by a visitor on the next day and the police were alerted.
After the case was detected, the husband and mother-in-law of the deceased woman were booked and arrested by NRI coastal police dowry harassment and cruelty which lead the woman to leave the house. Police Sub Inspector Meena Varhadi from NRI Coastal police station was suspended for not acting immediately on the missing person's complaint that the lady's parents had registered.
