Three sisters were killed and the police "did nothing for two days" until the the mother of the three girls, "ages 6, 9, 11," protested and she and the other people from her village blocked a national highway on Wednesday.
La Prensa reported on Feb. 20, 2013, that “Three sisters ages 6, 9 and 11 were raped, murdered and their bodies thrown into a well last week in the western Indian state of Maharastra, a senior police officer told Efe on Wednesday.”
The town of Murmadi is in the Bhandara district in the Maharashtra state, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (630 miles) south of New Delhi, the capital.
According to a police report, the three young girls disappeared after leaving their school. The well in which the three sisters were found two days later was only half a kilometer, or a third of a mile, from their house. Police officer Arti Singh stated that “The three (girls) were raped before being murdered."
The grandfather of the three killed young girls said that the girls had lost their father four years ago and that the girls and their mother were living in extreme poverty. “The girls were lured with food by unknown abductors, the victims' grandfather told NDTV television.”
India’s police initially said that the rape and killing of the three young girls was “an accident” and it was not until the mother of the three girls began to protest, that the case was taken seriously by officials. Only after the mother and the other villagers blocked off the national highway, forced shops to close, and burned tires on Wednesday, did the police initiate the manhunt.
All that the mother of the three killed girls and the villagers were asking for is justice.
"’The police did not take the case seriously and did nothing for two days,’ the CNN-IBN television news channel quoted the mother as saying. Her name was withheld.”
After the mother’s and the villagers’ protest about the police’s failure to search for the three sisters’ killers, one police officer was suspended “for not acting promptly,” according to Indian Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel, who represents Bhandara district in India's Parliament.
"It is unacceptable. All of us have to hang our heads in shame," Minister Patel said.
In response to the mother’s protest, the central government has now involved state investigators in the case and has asked to be informed about any new developments in the rape and killing of the three young sisters. By now, the manhunt conducted by the police consists of five teams who are searching for the murderers. A reward of around $900 has been offered for information leading to their arrests.One young girl's life, -- $300.
India’s Cabinet Minister Manish Tewari called the killings of the three young girls a "very, very heinous assault." According to Minister Tewari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “was sending 1 million rupees ($18,300) to the family.” One young girl's life, -- $910.
How much is a young girl's life worth in India?
On Dec. 23, 2012, thousands of protestors gathered in Delhi to protest against lax laws and the government’s handling of the gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on December 16, in Delhi.
Seeing the violent energy of the male protestors (seen in the above picture), however, raises the question if instead of money and protests, it wouldn’t be more effective to implement a much needed education program for men in India to help them deal with their violent energy and to teach them about the rights of women; including the rights of young girls.
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