Karnataka - Bangalore

`He should never be allowed near a girl'

Sahana Charan

ALONE NOW: Mubina displaying a photograph of her mother, Haseena, who was kidnapped and murdered a few days ago. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: "I hope he is hanged to death or dies in jail for all the bad things he has done to us. Whatever happens, he should never be allowed to go near a girl again. Ever."

This is what 19-year-old Mubina, former employee at a lottery shop, had to say about Vijay Kumar who is accused of kidnapping and murdering her mother, Haseena. Covered head to foot in a burkha, she burst into tears every time she mentioned her mother, who was strangled on March 27.

Mubina, who was working in Vijay Kumar's lottery shop on Whitefield Road here, had allegedly misused money transacted at the shop to play the lottery and lost all the money. To recover the money, her employer kidnapped Haseena, who was working as a cook in an apartment complex, and killed her, according to the police.

While the police said Vijay Kumar was having an affair with Mubina, she painted a different picture. According to her, she, her three younger sisters and mother were tenants in Vijay Kumar's house for the past two years. "Since we were staying in his house, we were obliged to him. He kept asking my mother to send me to the shop to work for him. I was forced to work there even though I did not want to," she said here on Thursday. Mubina said he forcibly had sex with her and her younger sister and also took liberties with the youngest two. "But we did not complain to anyone because he threatened to kill my mother and youngest sister if we spoke to anyone."

According to Mubina, a year ago, when her mother came to know that Vijay Kumar was exploiting her daughters, she went to the Mahadevapura police station and filed a complaint against him.

When he came to know about this, he locked up the youngest sister in his house and told two of her elder sisters to go to the police and tell them Haseena was mentally unstable. "We did it because we feared for our sister's life," a distraught Mubina said.

When asked if she spent money on lotteries, Mubina said she had not taken any money from the shop and did not owe any debt to Vijay Kumar, as he had never paid her a salary.

Women activists from the voluntary organisation Vimochana, who have taken up Mubina's case, said they had asked the police to order a medical test on the third sister who was in Vijay Kumar's custody when the murder came to light. Mubina and her sisters are living in fear, as they feel that Vijay Kumar will be out of jail soon because of his connections.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu