Ever since she took up the gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl of Rasana in Kathua. Deepika Singh Rajawat, the lawyer of the victim fears for the safety of her own daughter, her husband and herself.
She has been fighting a case against the eight men who have been accused of gang-raping and murdering the Kathua girl with a motive of ‘driving out Bakarwals from Jammu’, where the crime was committed. The alleged hate crime sent ripples of shock waves throughout the globe.
Earlier this year, after she expressed threat to her life the state police provided her with security after she spoke about being flooded with rape and murder threats.
According to the report published in News18, almost 10 months after she took up the case on behalf of the parents of the minor girl, the 38-year-old lawyer spoke about how lonely she feels in her fight for justice, and about the support that she’s got during this trying time.
She said “I feel threatened that my family or I might be harmed physically. Also, I feel my attempts will be made to damage my dignity.”
She started receiving abuses and threats soon after she became the face of the victim’s parents’ in a hunt for justice, she was labelled an “anti-national” and suffered a boycott by her colleagues, relatives and neighbours.
She stated “Serious allegations have been levelled on me since I took the case. My life has changed completely,” she volunteered to fight the case as soon as she read the details of the incident in newspapers.
“Their abusing cannot weaken me, it gives me strength and keeps me motivated always,” even my daughter is learning out of it. When she sees her mother working for a Muslim child, I think she gains a sense that we need to believe in humanity first,” she said.
“There are people after me with an intention to harm for sure. But the case is being watched internationally so they feel this is not the right time to harm me.” But these people “will fix me at some time in future. Of that I’m sure,” she says with a smile hiding the deadly threat that she never forgets.