MITHI: A fact-finding committee submitted its report on Friday recommending stern action against influential people who had held a jirga in Tharparkar to force the family of a rape victim, who had later committed suicide, to drop charges against the convict in the case and accept blood money.

The committee constituted by the Sindh Human Rights Department was tasked with probing reports that the jirga had tried to scare family of rape victim Leela Meghwar into accepting the deal.

Leela Meghwar, 16, had committed suicide six months after being sexually assaulted in a remote village of Diplo taluka when she learnt that she had become pregnant. In September, 2021 a Mithi court sentenced the accused Koonpji Thakur to 24 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs9.5 million on him after finding him guilty of rape, abortion and forcing the victim to commit suicide.

During February this year, news began to circulate in the electronic and social media that some influential persons of Tharparkar district had held a jirga to save the convict and forced the victim’s family to pardon him.

Findings confirm they forced deceased rape victim’s family to pardon influential convict

Special Assistant to Sindh Chief Minister on Human Rights Surendar Valasai took notice of teh reports and constituted the three-member fact-finding committee headed by Kashif Bajeer advocate with Peeral Mari advocate and Noorjahan Ghelaro as its members.

The committee met the victim’s family, residents of the village, concerned officials and journalists and reviewed documents and evidence of the Leela Meghwar case before submitting its eight-page report to the Sindh Human Rights Department.

The committee confirmed the jirga had been held and recommended stern action against those who had violated the law by taking the step.

The committee appealed to the Sindh Human Rights Commission to appoint its judicial member to further investigate the case.

The committee said in the report that the convict belonged to an influential family, while the family members of the victim were daily wage earners.

The committee recommended to the IGP to provide security to the victim’s family and its community and said it was necessary to provide police security to the victim’s family, who were being threatened to drop charges against the convict.

The report said that after the court sentenced the accused, one of the victim’s brothers, Jhaman Meghwar, also committed suicide in suspicious circumstances, which also necessitated reinvestigation.

The committee cited postmortem report of the victim and pointed out that she had become pregnant six months after being sexually assaulted.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2023