11 yrs after, 2002 rape victim gets Rs5 lakh compensation

Almost 11 year after his wife was gang-raped and his life torn asunder in the 2002 riots, Nayeemuddin Ibrahim Sheikh, a resident of Naroda Patia, received a cheque of Rs5 lakh on Friday as compensation from the social welfare department of the Gujarat government. The compensation was not the result of the largesse of the state government but it came after the direction of additional sessions court.

Teesta Setalvad, secretary of the Citizens for Justice and Peace, said that despite the court’s order, lawyers had to pay several visits to the social welfare department before the cheque came through.
She said that eleven women were raped in the Naroda Patia incident and Nayeem’s wife was the only rape victim to survive the brutality.

Nayeem wants to use the money to better the future of his two children. “My wife is still traumatised about the incident. She had her arm chopped off from the shoulder. Though the doctors joined it, she can no more use it,” said Nayeem, who now lives in Vatva.

He said that till today, his biggest regret is that the men who raped his wife were not caught. “They were not among the accused. I know their faces but didn’t know their names,” said Nayeem, who spent six months in relief camps following the riots.

Nayeem said that he returned to Naroda Patia a few times but his wife was too traumatised to put her foot there. “She says that she will go mad if she has to ever return there. She was raped outside the Gopinath Gangotri Society,” said Nayeem recalling the incident. Nayeem said that before the riots, he earned his living by selling bread but now he does miscellaneous tailoring job to support his family.