Balia: Family members of the Damini, the 23 year old Sexual Assault and Murder Victim on December 16 nigh have  supported union minister Shashi Tharoor’s suggestion that a stringent law against rape be named after her, saying the move would be an honor to the woman.
In their first interaction with media at their home village in Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh, after the death of the 23-year-old, her father and brother said they had no objection if her name was revealed in the process for making such a law.
Her identity has not been revealed and she is being referred to by various pseudonyms like ‘Nirbhaya’ and ‘Abhaya’.
They also hoped that the government would act swiftly in this direction and ensure that girls and women across the country were made safer.
“In case an anti-rape law was named after my daughter, it will be a befitting honour for the spirit of my brave daughter,” her father told media persons.
Shiv Mandir Singh, the gram pradhan (village head), has already named the primary school in the village after the deceased rape victim.
The victim’s brother said they were conducting the last rites of the young woman who was cremated Dec 30 in Delhi, exactly two weeks after she was brutally raped and tortured.
He told IANS that his sister’s ashes were immersed in the Ganga in Bihar Buxar around 11.30 p.m. Tuesday.
“It will be an honour for my sister,” the 20-year-old brother of the victim said, four days after the physiotherapy intern died in a Singapore hospital Dec 29.
Tharoor had stoked controversy by suggesting that the revised anti-rape law be named after the victim, and added that this should be done if her parents had no objection.
Officials, however say, naming of any section in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) after a particular person might be very difficult as there is no precedent of this kind.
The woman was gang-raped and tortured in a moving bus in New Delhi Dec 16, 2012, and passed away Dec 29 in a Singapore hospital where she was shifted for better treatment.
The rape and the subsequent death of the woman had triggered a national outcry, with people demanding immediate action against her attackers and a revised anti-rape law.
The on-going protests here have subsided a great deal, but a group, formed randomly at the Jantar Mantar, has started a mission to collect written messages from people protesting against the brutal gang-rape.
The messages will be sent to the Justice J.S. Verma Committee formed by the government to look into amendments for enhanced punishment in sexual offences against women.