11-Year-old Hindu Boy Gang-Raped and Murdered in Swimming Pool by Pakistani Muslims
Inder Vineet Hotwani, 11-Years-old
An 11-year-old Pakistani Hindu boy named Inder Vineet Hotwani has been allegedly raped and murdered at the premises of a club in Sindh province, triggering protests by people demanding justice for the family, a media report said today.
The son of a Hindu doctor was found dead in a swimming pool inside the Hyderabad Club on April 13. The family members of the boy claim that he was deliberately thrown into the pool to cover up sexual abuse and murder. After the lapse of about a month, no clue is found to unearth the mystery behind the innocent Hindu boy.
Dr. Chetan Kumar Hotwani, the father of the victim, said that the boy went missing for more than an hour despite tight security inside the club on that day. His son’s body was later found ‘bearing torture marks on his face’ floating in the four-foot-deep swimming pool in the club.
Chetan Hotwani said that despite repeated requests, the club’s administration was not providing him access to the CCTV footage from the day of the incident.
However, senior police official Rahat Azeem said that CCTV footage has been secured and investigation into the matter is going on.
“We have secured the CCTV footage and are questioning employees at the club to find out what happened but the father says the boy had marks on his face and body and was first abused and then murdered to cover up the crime,” Azeem said.
“The club administration called us at 4:35pm that day to tell us that our son drowned and that they have shifted him to Ghani Hospital. When I reached there his [Inder’s] pulse was zero and his heart was not beating,” said the boy’s father, Dr Chetan Kumar Hotwani, a pediatrician and assistant professor at Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, at a press conference a few days ago.
For the next nine days he kept his son on a ventilator at hospitals in Hyderabad and Karachi, trying to resuscitate him but Inder was dead even before being taken to the hospital.
“I had seen the bruises on his body, which are unusual in the case of drowning. Drowning didn’t seem to have taken his life,” Hotwani argued. After several days of protest by the family, the G.O.R police finally registered a murder case against the club’s administration.
Initially, Hyderabad SSP Irfan Baloch formed an inquiry committee, headed by ASP Suhai Aziz, but the Sindh home minister later assigned the inquiry to the SSP himself. Two suspects, Sajjad Parehar and Nadir Parehar, both lifeguards at the club, were arrested.
However, to the family’s discontent, the police obtained only a one-day physical remand of the suspects and on Friday, they were sent to jail on judicial remand. “How can the police complete an investigation in such a serious case in just one day?” wondered Hotwani.
SSP Baloch said the CCTV footage provided by the club is blurred. “The club maintains CCTV record of seven days. During the first seven days after the death, the family approached the administration to give them the footage but they refused,” he explained. The police received the footage after the registration of the FIR on May 2.
Shocked by the incident and being frustrated by the police actions, members of civil society, social activists, Hindu forums and political leaders gathered in Mirpurkhas city on Saturday to demand an inquiry into the alleged rape and murder of an eleven-year old boy in Hyderabad.
Protesters have demanded the Sindh government to order a thorough probe into the alleged murder of the boy, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported.
Former Member of National Assembly Kiswan Chand Parwani, former Member Provincial Assembly Lachhman Karmani and others contended that the young boy did not drown but was raped and then thrown into the pool.
Hindu Panchayat activist Karmani alleged that the Hindu boy was killed after being a victim of sodomy by the Muslim culprits.
