Raisar/Jaipur: Days after a 32-year-old woman in Rajasthan’s Raisar village was allegedly burnt alive in front of several witnesses, the local police Friday arrested seven people for “abetment to suicide”.
All seven arrested — identified as Babulal, Prahlad, Ram Karan, Rajendra, Sunil, Sulochana and Saraswati — are members of the deceased’s husband’s extended family.
But how a complaint of murder led to arrests for “abetment to suicide” is a complex narrative of allegations and counter-allegations
On 10 August, Tarachand Khajotiya, a Raisar resident working in Jaipur, had filed an FIR at the local police station, alleging that his wife — Anita — had been beaten up and burnt alive near their Raisar house. Those accused in the FIR included members of Khajotiya’s extended family, including his cousins — his uncle’s children.
According to Khajotiya and his brother, Suresh Kumar Khajotiya, there had been issues relating to money within the family, and the accused had been harassing Anita for some time. Anita had lent Rs 2 lakh to the accused and they started harassing her when she asked them to return the money, they claimed.
The brothers also told ThePrint Friday that while they work in Jaipur and were there at the time of the incident, their spouses — Anita Devi and Vimla Devi — lived in their ancestral village, Raisar, with their children.
The alleged attack on Anita took place while she was on her way to drop her six-year-old son to school on 10 August, claimed Suresh. Hearing her scream, her sister-in-law Vimla, came to her rescue, doused the flames and took her to hospital, but Anita succumbed to her injuries on 16 August, claimed the family.
While initially the police had registered a case under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a murder charge was added after Anita died on 16 August.
ThePrint has a copy of the FIR.
However, additional superintendent of police, Raisar, Bhavani Singh, told ThePrint that the sections relating to murder and harrassment were dropped following investigations, and that of abetment to suicide added..
ThePrint also visited the spot of the alleged killing in Raisar, where some of residents who spoke to ThePrint claimed that the deceased had set herself on fire — while her sister-in-law filmed her in flames — to implicate the accused, but the situation got out of hand.
The deceased’s family claimed that the accused wield considerable power in the village — muscle power, alleged political connections and money — because of which villagers are reluctant to say anything against them.
ThePrint reached Bhanwarilal, a family member of the accused, over phone but the calls went unanswered. The report will be updated once a response is received.
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Allegations and counter allegations
On Friday night, Khajotiya was admitted to the Jaipur Hospital with high blood pressure and anxiety, said his brother.
When ThePrint met him in hospital, he requested help to “get justice for Anita” even as he gasped for breath.
“She was on her way to the school to drop off our son. In the middle of the road they (members of his uncle’s family) threw petrol on her body and set her on fire,” claimed Khajotiya.
“They have been harassing us for a long time. I left the village (to work in Jaipur), they found her alone and burned her,” claimed Khajotiya.
According to the deceased’s family, the accused wield considerable power in the village and one of them, Saraswati Devi had even been a sarpanch 15 years ago. The family claimed that it was because of their money power, political connections and muscle power, that villagers were scared of them.
However Anita had filed three FIRs against the accused for alleged harassment, the latest dated 8 August, when the family of the accused had allegedly beaten her up.
ThePrint has copies of all three FIRs.
“But we didn’t think they would go this far,” said Suresh.
According to Suresh, between 8 and 8.30 am on 10 August, Anita was on her way to drop her son to school when she was surrounded (by the accused) who started beating her.
He also claimed that before her death Anita told the family that she first took shelter in a nearby house, from where she also called the constable of the local police station.
When the constable allegedly did not respond to her pleas for help and stopped answering her calls, she called the 100 helpline, claimed Suresh.
Meanwhile, the accused allegedly threatened the owner of the house where Anita had sought shelter, prompting him to tell her to leave.
When she came out of the house, the accused poured petrol on her and set her on fire, alleged Suresh.
“People kept watching and taking videos of her. Nobody tried to help her.” he further alleged
When Vimla reached the spot, the police were yet to arrive, claimed Suresh, who said he heard about it from Vimla.
While Suresh alleged that the police took more than an hour to reach the spot, Bhavani Singh dismissed any suggestion of delay on their part.
“We are not Switzerland police. It’s not like we can reach at the click of a button. We reached in 20 minutes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Suresh said, Vimla had informed him of the incident and he called an acquaintance who had a car to assist Vimla in taking Anita to a hospital in Jaipur.
But the family alleged that police took her to a dispensary in Jamwa Ramgarh, instead.
“They were just concerned about completing the legal formalities.” Khajotia alleged..
Anita was sent to SMS hospital in Jaipur after initial treatment at the dispensary, said the family, but the police did not “come to record her statement for two days. We were afraid that we were going to lose her, so we recorded a video of her,” they claimed.
In the now viral video, Anita is seen naming some of the accused.
Another gruesome incident has come to light from Jaipur, Rajasthan, the Dalit teacher was burnt alive, the woman has died during treatment. #DalitLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/c888SAOQN0
— Susheel shinde (@Shinde_Voice) August 17, 2022
When ThePrint visited the spot of the incident, however, which is just a few hundred metres away from the deceased’s house, some of the villagers claimed they had witnessed her setting fire to herself.
“She wanted to scare the accused family by lodging a false case against them,” said Mukesh Kumar Raigar.
ThePrint has accessed videos of a badly burnt Anita lying in front of Raigar’s house.
Asked why he did not come to help Anita he said, “What was there to help? She set herself on fire and within a few seconds poured water over herself.”
He alleged that Vimla was the one who recorded the video which has now gone viral on social media.
“When she (Vimla) realised that the fire had gotten out of control she came to help Anita,” he claimed.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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