Patna: As the entire nation boils with anger over the death of a braveheart medical student gang-raped on a moving bus in New Delhi, the family members of one of the key accused in the case Akshay Thakur, also known as Akshay Singh, have locked themselves in their house and lost mental calm out of shame.
Thakur’s family is settled at Karmalahang village under Tandawa police station in south Bihar’s Aurangabad district, notorious for frequent human rights violations and Maoist violence. Thakur who is married has a two-year-old son with a grown-up family engaged in farming activities for survival.
It was at this village that Thakur, now lodged in high-security Tihar jail, had grown up among the local villagers and passed secondary examinations from a local government school before shifting to Chhattisgarh in the lookout for livelihood. Finally, he had shifted to Delhi about a year ago.
Curiously, the local police say neither the family nor the accused has any criminal background. “The accused has no criminal background,” the local district superintendent of police Daljit Singh has told the media.
The family members are shocked that it will be tough for them to face the society. They already have nearly stopped interacting with co-villagers who have joined the groups of protesters seeking death to the rape accused.
“What’s now left to them when the entire society has turned against them? They will have to carry the burden of shame the whole life,” one of the cops Raju Kumar Paswan quoted Thakur’s father Saryu Singh as saying.
Paswan is one of the few security guards who have been deployed outside the house of Thakur’s house for the safety of his family apprehending possible backlash after the death of the rape accused. The co-villagers have demanded death sentence to the accused persons stating that their act has brought disrepute to their village.
“The kind of crime Akshaya has committed, our head hangs in shame now. We have no strength left in us to face the co-villagers,” accused father has been quoted as saying. “He does not deserve mercy”.
Even angrier is Leelavati Devi, mother of the accused, who doesn’t want to be addressed as mother anymore by her accused son. “He (Akshay) will have to face the consequence for the heinous crime he has committed but my daughter-in-law and grandson have to pay dearly for no faults of theirs,” Devi has been quoted as saying in the local media adding, “They will be ashamed to even use the name of Akshay… they will even find it difficult to face the society” “What face will we now show to the society?” she asks.
Local villagers say loud cries are usually heard from the house which remains shut most of the time. They say the family have even lost their mental cool in the aftermath of the incident and have been seen not reacting even though the cattle grazed their farmland in front of them.
Meanwhile, various organisations in Bihar have decided not to engage in new year celebrations as a mark of respect to the departed soul who died fighting valiantly to the rape accused.
“We have cancelled new year celebrations in view of the shocking incident,” Lion’s Club, Patna, president Manju Singh said. The All India Progressive Women’s Association, Bihar Mahila Samaj (Bihar Women Society), Bihar Women Industry Association and Nari Gunjan too have vowed not to engage them in merrymaking this year.
The Bhartiya Janata Party which is a coalition partner in the ruling NDA government in Bihar headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar too has advised the people to stay away form new year revelry while the chief minister has already cancelled his trip to a cultural festival at Rajgir in his home district of Nalanda.
