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The brutal murder of a dalit family by upper castes, and allegations of rape and torture of the mother and daughter in full public view. But, more than a month later, the guilty have not yet been apprehended
Even in a country where violent atrocities against dalits, especially dalit women, occur with shocking regularity, the brutal murder of a dalit family in a village in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and the alleged rape of the mother and teenage daughter, have shocked the country.
However, no official action was initiated against the perpetrators of the crime, in Khairlanji village, Bhandara district, forcing an angry public, rights groups, Naxals and political parties to hold demonstrations across Vidarbha, on November 6 and 7, which turned violent as protestors and local police clashed.
On November 8, around 50 dalit women activists stormed Mantralaya, the state administrative headquarters in Mumbai, demanding action against those involved in the killings.
In the face of growing public outrage, the Maharashtra government has finally launched an investigation and entrusted the probe to the state's crime investigation department instead of the local police. Protestors are demanding a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) inquiry, to ensure that the investigation is free and fair. It has also announced that a fast track court will try the case.
Every member of the Bhotmange family was massacred, except for the father, for objecting to people using the family field as an access road to their lands. This simple assertion of rights annoyed the neighbours. Most people in this nondescript village of around 200 families belong to the upper castes.
To resolve the dispute, Surekha Bhotmange, a mother of three, sought help from Siddharth Gajbhiye, a cousin from neighbouring Dhusala. This annoyed the villagers even more because Gajbhiye was already involved in a dispute with one of them over money. When Gajbhiye was assaulted the Bhotmanges stood up for him and testified against the villagers, leading to several arrests.
On the evening of September 29, a large mob of villagers broke into the Bhotmanges' house and hacked Surekha, her two sons Sudhir, 21, and Roshan, 19, and 17-year-old daughter to death. They threw the bodies into a nearby canal.
Eyewitnesses say that Surekha and Priyanka were stripped, paraded naked and gang-raped by the villagers, with the consent of the village headman, before being murdered. Priyanka's corpse was recovered from the canal the next day.
Bhaiyyalal, Surekha's husband, was the only family member to survive the mob fury. "I was in the field when I heard people shout. When I rushed to my hut I saw some 50-60 people attacking my family." Realising he couldn't take on the mob, Bhaiyyalal fled, seeking shelter with relatives in nearby Warthi.
The police took action only after local protests. But, Bhaiyyalal says, many of those he named still go about scot-free.
Bhaiyyalal says he realises it was a mistake moving to Khairlanji as it was not a place that would welcome a dalit landowning family. "We thought we could mingle with the upper castes in the village. But they always made us feel that we were not their equals. If we had a function, they wouldn't eat at our place," he says.
Meanwhile, no one in Khairlanji is talking about the incident. "We haven't seen anything. So what can we say?" is the oft-heard response. V Khandate, who lives just two houses down from the main village area where the public beatings and rape allegedly took place says that he was in a hospital recovering from chikungunya on the day of the incident.
Upas Rao Khanate, the sarpanch of the village, says he was sleeping at the time of the murders -- even though they occurred as early as 7 in the evening -- and has no knowledge of the events of that night.
Meanwhile, another controversy is brewing over allegations of rape by eyewitnesses.
Protestors allege that the bodies had not been properly examined to gather medical evidence of rape, and that evidence had been tampered with. Suresh Sagar, police superintendent of Bhandara district, who is one of the policemen overseeing the case, and Pankaj Gupta, inspector general of Nagpur, deny these accusations.
Source: www.mumbaimirror.com, November 9,
2006
The Indian Express, November 8,
2006
www.ndtv.com, November 8,
2006
The Indian Express, November 7, 2006
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