Chandigarh rejects aid for mentally challenged rape victim

CHANDIGARH - The Chandigarh administration Monday rejected the financial assistance offered by a Delhi-based trust for the care and upbringing of a 19-year-old mentally challenged rape victim and her unborn child.

Standing counsel of union territory administration Monday submitted an affidavit before the Punjab and Haryana High Court declining the aid of National Trust for the Welfare of Persons With Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.

“The financial help offered by this trust is just cosmetic and we do not need it. We have made it clear in our affidavit that the Chandigarh administration is ready to adopt both the victim and her unborn child,” Anupam Gupta, union territory standing counsel, told IANS here Monday.

He added: “We will take care of all medical, nursing and psychological needs of both the mother and her child. We have not fixed any ceiling amount and are ready to incur all the expenditure. We will also bear the expenditure of tuition fees, books and uniform of the child.”

“We will ensure a job for the child when he/she attains adulthood and also make arrangements for his/her decent marriage. We will regularly submit all the progress report of both mother and child to the court, and we are also ready to include additional things in our affidavit that court will recommend,” stated Gupta.

The court has fixed the next hearing of the case Nov 6 and has sought the trust’s reaction to the affidavit submitted by union territory administration.

The victim was allegedly raped by a male attendant, Bhupinder Singh, 32, at the government-run Nari Niketan in Sector 26 here. The matter came to light May this year after the victim developed complications. The police have arrested the main accused and three others.

At present, the victim, who is 28-week pregnant, is being kept by local authorities at the Government Medical College and Hospital here in Sector 32.

Earlier, the trust had proposed to constitute a corpus fund of Rs.800,000 to provide future financial aid to mother and her unborn baby under its ‘Gharonda’ scheme.

It also offered to provide a caregiver to the victim for a period of five years and a health cover insurance of Rs.100,000.