Morung Express News
September 25
Dimapur: An altogether new story on the attempted rape and murder of Grace Khing by Vekheto, a head GB has emerged. When The Morung Express met the victim face to face, new facets to the incident were revealed. According to Grace and her family, no settlement on the case has been reached upon thus far. They have also strongly come out against the press release issued by Hewoto, Chairman of the Henito Village Council, Niuland, Dimapur wherein it was stated that the case had been settled for a sum of Rs 1500.
According to them, the money forwarded was only the court fee of the Village Council. Grace had to say that Vekheto, who was a father figure to her, had admitted to the act when they had appeared before the Longwensunyu Village Council. Vekheto had reportedly said that he was drunk when he committed the act and that the devil was in possession of him.
However, Grace had to say that Vekheto was driving his motorcycle normally and that she would not have accompanied him in the first place if she had found any indications that he was under the influence of alcohol. While showing her tattered clothes which were reportedly ripped off by the perpetrator, she said that there were no other youths with them and that if she had consented to Vekheto’s advances, she would not have displayed her torn clothes and would not be having injuries. She also said that she fought against the father of seven children for more than three hours.
According to her, when Vekheto realized he could not overpower her for the purpose of rape, he became intent on killing her in order to protect his image. Vekheto is presently under the custody of the UT-1, NSCN (I-M) as the family members are of the belief that once the case goes to the Police it will gradually be downplayed.
Grace's story
He tried to subdue me for a very long time but I fought back tooth and nail. My cries of help went unattended....
I was taking the place of my sister who is a teacher in Tseminyu as she is nearing the delivery of a child. On that fateful day, I went to my aunt’s place at Rengmapani and asked her to accompany me to the market. As both my uncle and aunt were engaged in other activities, my uncle advised me to go with Vekheto who had come to visit my uncle. Vekheto and my uncle are good friends. I was apprehensive initially but due to the coaxing of my uncle, I agreed to ride on his bike towards the market. When we reached the market, we found that it had already been closed. He offered to drop me back. Without any suspicion, I sat on his bike. On the way, he stopped at the place where the incident occurred on the pretext of taking a rest. He asked me to come and sit at a shaded area. I refused to oblige as I had become wary of his intentions. Then all of a sudden, he pounced on me and started assaulting me. He tried to subdue me for a very long time but I fought back tooth and nail. When he realized he could not overpower me, he attempted to murder me and assaulted me in whichever way he could. My cries of help went unattended. Some ‘mians’ who were passing by were threatened of dire consequences by Vekheto. As a result, they were much too scared to interfere. After wrestling with him for a very long time, I finally managed to flee to the house of another Sumi GB who, along with his wife, gave me food, clothing and shelter for the night. The next morning, the persons who had sheltered me wrote a letter to the Rengmapani authorities and also escorted me there.
(As told to The Morung Express)
