SARLAHI, JUNE 02

A Dalit girl of Sarlahi, who was sweet-talked by her boyfriend to elope with the assurance of marriage, and was later abandoned, filed an FIR with the police accusing him of rape and hostage-taking.

Earlier, 19-year-old Shiva Kumar Yadav of Dulawa, Bishnupur, had convinced the 17-year old Mushahar girl of the same village to run away with him.

However, after keeping the girl with him for three weeks, he had brought her home and fled, abandoning her.

"I ran away with him as he had promised to marry me, but after staying together in Jitpur for 20 days, he brought me back to his home and fled. His parents did not let me enter the house, citing my 'low' caste. I had to live in a cowshed all by myself for days before I was rescued," said the victim.

There have been reports of threats and various other assurances issued from the perpetrator's side to the victim's family over the issue.

According to Dalit activist Rajesh Paswan, a joint team of Malangawa District Police Office and Women Peace Centre, through the Dalit Network, rescued the victim from the cowshed of Shiva Kumar's house and brought her to Malangawa on Saturday.

The girl is now in the Women Peace Centre in Malangawa Municipality.

"On the one hand, there have been repeated threats from the boy's family, and on the other, direct and indirect pressure from village leaders against filing a legal case. We didn't know what to do," said the victim's mother.

SP Santosh Singh of District Police Office said an FIR had been filed. He pledged to take action against the perpetrator.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 3, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.