Over a week after a girl was allegedly molested and pushed out of a moving train, police have finally managed to establish her identity as Gunasheela, and not Asha Rani as she had claimed. The victim is also not from Hubli as previously claimed, but from Yachenahalli in T. Narasipur taluk of Mysore district. As per details on her Aadhaar card, she is 17 years old and not 19 as stated earlier, according to Mandya District Railway Outpost Inspector Mr Gopalakrishna.
The girl’s mother Chikka Hanumamma had set herself ablaze by dousing herself in kerosene over herself 15 years ago. Her father Siddaraju is a private bus driver in Kollegal. “My father has not been in touch with us ever since our mother’s death. He neither took care of our food or clothes, nor our education, so I said he is dead,” Gunasheela told the police. Her younger brother Srinivas, who has studied till Class 7, works as a labourer and has been staying with their grandmother in Yachenahalli, who has taken care of them ever since their mother’s death, police said.
“I didn’t want my family to face humiliation and embarrassment which is why I was reluctant to disclose details about them,” Gunasheela told Deccan Chronicle. Gunasheela, who has studied till Class 9, had got into SSLC but did not write her exams. She insists that she worked with Indura Garments in Bommanahalli for the last two years, but added that she has quit 15 days ago. “We are yet to ascertain if she worked for Indura Garments as Hinduja Garments, where we have checked, has denied employing her”, Police Inspector Gopalakrishna said.
“I had been to Bengaluru to visit my friends on that day. I had some work in Kengeri which is why I had taken a ticket to Kengeri. But I boarded the train again on seeing the group of men following me,” Gunasheela claimed. She stayed with her friend Susheela as a paying guest in Chikkabegur, paying Rs 1,500 per month. She also insists that she stayed with the Madan couple. She visited her grandmother once a week or fortnight and gave some money. According to her grandmother and brother, Gunasheela was the one who took care of them, police said. Meanwhile, police have found that Madan, in whose house Gunsheela claimed to have stayed, had married a minor girl and was accused by the girl’s parents of kidnap and rape. He even spent 20 days in judicial custody, police added.