“I wish I were dead,” wails Asha Rani, the traumatised 19-year-old, thrown from the moving Yeshwanthpur-Mysore train by a group of four young men who not only harassed and pushed her through the bogies, but pushed her off the footboard into the Kulli River, a drop off some 25 feet!! At 1.30 pm in the afternoon, in full view of all the passengers on the train.
Barring two men who tried to intervene and who were thrashed for their pains, and with no railway guards on board, the other passengers remained mute spectators. As Asha — an orphan, struggling to make her way in the world by working in a big city like Bengaluru, commuting every day from Mysore — lies friendless and alone in a hospital in Mandya, shunned by everyone, stunned by the turn of events, a minister in the BJP government even tried to imply that she had a questionable character. Really? Mr Minister? Does that justify her being thrown off the train? Why? Because she refused the unholy quartet’s advances?
Dr Shivakumar K.M., medical superintendent of the Mandya district hospital says Asha may only have superficial injuries on her body, but the mental trauma could leave long lasting scars.