Thursday, October 15, 2015

3 years ago she was murder accused, now puffed up with pride of PG degree Padmini Sivarajah,TNN | Oct 15, 2015, 09.52 AM IST

MADURAI: A mother of four children, 43-year-old Usha Rani made use of a chance provided by the law to bounce back after a tragic event rocked her life three years ago.

On February 9, 2012, when Usha Rani came home from work, she saw her estranged husband trying to rape her teenage daughter. In an instinctive reaction, Usha grabbed a cricket bat and bludgeoned her drunk husband to death. She immediately called an ambulance to send her husband's body to mortuary and surrendered at the police station. Usha Rani told the police she had killed her husband in a desperate attempt to rescue her daughter from being raped by her own father.

She was arrested immediately. The following day, however, the then superintendent of police Asra Garg invoked section 100 of the Indian Penal Code and released her from the rarest of rare case. As per the section, if a death is caused in the process of private defence (to prevent or escape rape or murder), the person need not be tried for murder.

From then on, it was no turning back for Usha, who has completed post-graduation despite having three young daughters and a son to take care of. She went to her parents' house and brought up her children after the 'incident'.

She had completed only schooling when she got married in 1990. Her life became muddled after her husband became an alcoholic a few years after the marriage. But this did not hold her back from pursuing B.Sc (psychology) which she completed in 2011.

After the death of her husband, she went on to do her M.A in sociology through the Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) and received her certificate on October 10 this year at a grand function held in Chennai. Governor K Rosaiah was the chief gues at the function.

"We shifted our house soon after the 'incident' and not many neighbours here know of my past. I still do not know how they will react if they come to know about it. But today, I am able to look after my children with my job as a DTP operator in the TNOU," Usha said proudly.

"It is a temporary post and will be helpful if it is made a permanent one," she said. She canvasses and enrolls people who have completed Class 10 to take up courses with the TNOU's distance learning programme and exceeds the target given to her.

Usha said women should not continue to endure alcoholic abuses. They should come out and seek relief, she added.

"They should believe that there is a life beyond marriage, in which every woman can realise her dreams," she said. If she comes across any woman facing abuse, she teaches her meditation. Usha is also now part of a SHG and works there in the evenings.

While Usha's first daughter has completed her studies in aviation, her second daughter is doing her post-graduation, third daughter B.Com and her son will sit for the SSLC board examination next year.

Women should believe that there is a life beyond marriage, in which every one of them can realise their dreams. They shoud not endure alcoholic abuses

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