Sandeep Pandey (second from left) and others at the sit-in in Lucknow. Picture by Naeem Ansari

Lucknow, Feb. 18: A rights activist’s daughter has been kidnapped after he campaigned against a Bengal woman’s rape by a rich businessman.

V.K. Rai had launched a movement in early February against Ghulam Rasool, one of the richest carpet traders of Bhadohi in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Rasool, accused of using a 25-year-old woman from Murshidabad as a sex slave for 12 years, was arrested yesterday.

But Rai, the founder secretary of the Centre for Environment and Rural Technology, is now in Lucknow, staging demonstrations against the government’s failure to trace or rescue his daughter.

Rachna Rai, 20, was kidnapped in hometown Bhadohi on February 8, a day after her father had organised a daylong protest against Rasool, joined in by 5,000 people, including lawyers, teachers, students, trade bodies and women’s groups.

The activist today alleged his daughter was kidnapped to pressure him to withdraw the campaign against Rasool, whose factory has a turnover of over Rs 30 crore.

“I suspect Rasool’s men have abducted her,” Rai, who arrived here on Saturday, said today.

Social activists of Lucknow, including Magsaysay winner Sandeep Pandey, have launched a sit-in since yesterday, demanding immediate rescue of Rachna.

Rachna Rai

Rasool was arrested on the basis of the Murshidabad woman’s police statement of February 5.

“I became the mother of Rasool’s son because of the regular rapes. My son is two-and-a-half years old. I am pregnant with a second child from him,” she told S.N. Sabat, deputy inspector-general of police, Mirzapur (neighbouring Bhadohi).

She alleged that Rasool never let her out alone and so her plight remained unknown till she managed to send a letter to Rai.

Bhadohi has a thriving carpet industry that illegally employs child labourers, many of them from Bengal. The victim said her mother sent her to work in Rasool’s factory when she was 13 and her ordeal began almost immediately.

Rachna, a second-year BA student, was kidnapped on her way to K.N.P.S. College. “She left home at 9.30am but never reached her college,” Rai said.

“The police are investigating the abduction and the rape, and the alleged rapist has been arrested. We hope to find the activist’s daughter soon,” said the superintendent of police, Bhadohi, S.N. Upadhyay.

Rasool’s lawyer Majhar Shaqueel said the kidnapping and the serial rapes were not connected and that his client was innocent of both charges.

Rai’s agitation has the support of many independent rights groups, such as the Women’s Health Right Forum and the Men’s Action for Stopping Violence against Women.