It's been a month since two children in Rohtak, Himanshu and Nishita, have been demanding justice for their mother who killed herself after she was raped. But justice still seems elusive.
After a month of living in the open outside Rohtak Court, the kids have started building a shelter. The siblings are here with their grandparents, campaigning to free their father Sunil Singh who is being tried in the court for killing his wife Alka.
And now the family says the police is pressurising them to withdraw the case because it has become an embarrassment. The District Collector, too, asks them to clear out.
"He said it was illegal to sit here," said Roop Singh, the children's grandfather.
For two days, NDTV tried to get in touch with the District Collector, but he was not available for comment. Meanwhile, with no end in sight, the children are making their own arrangements.
"We demand that CBI enquiry should be ordered into the whole matter. The poor man who took the extreme step and tried to commit suicide should be freed and the children should be taken care of and given proper shelter," said Ranjan Lakhanpal, a human rights lawyer at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The family said Alka was gangraped three years ago and the accused were never arrested. Broken by the injustice the couple drank poison. Alka died, but Sunil somehow survived and ironically, was later held for planning her murder.
"There can't be a greater travesty of justice. The culprits who are accused of raping a women are moving about freely, and her husband who tried to commit suicide is in jail," Lakhanpal said.
For a whole month they have lived on a pavement fighting hunger, fear and poverty preparing for a long haul, not least for the crucial hearing on Thursday.
