New Delhi: “Didi toh rahi nahi, maar diya, ab hume marenge (Sister isn’t alive, they killed her, now they will kill us),” said the younger brother of the 20-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly gangraped and murdered in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district in 2020, after a court acquitted three of the four accused.
On Thursday, the UP court while announcing the verdict in the case charged only the main accused — Sandeep — under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. None of the four upper caste men have been charged with rape/gangrape.
Both the victim’s lawyer Seema Kushwaha and defense counsel Munna Singh Pundhir confirmed the conviction to ThePrint.
The other three — Ravi, Luv Kush and Ramu — were acquitted in the case.
“This is all politics. Had this happened if we weren’t Dalits and they weren’t Thakurs? We have spent our lives in a cage since then. Our women, daughters had to be always guarded. Now what will they do? If anything happens, then who is responsible,” the brother told ThePrint over the phone.
Only the victim’s eldest brother and his wife visited the court Thursday. Everyone back at home prayed hoping that they would get justice finally.
In December 2020, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet against the four upper caste men for the alleged gangrape and murder. The charge sheet slammed the Uttar Pradesh Police for inaction, delay and not following adequate procedure in recording the victim’s statement.
Sandeep (20), his uncle Ravi (35) and their friends Ramu (26) and Luv Kush (23) — all upper caste Thakurs — were charged under Sections 376 (rape), 376 (D) (gang rape), 302 (murder) of the IPC and relevant sections of the SC/ST Act.
“Though victim alleged molestation, her medical examination regarding sexual assault was not conducted,” the charge sheet, accessed by ThePrint, noted.
The charge sheet stated that the Dalit woman “categorically stated that she was gang raped by the aforesaid four accused persons; she has also named aforesaid four accused persons in her ‘dying declaration’ recorded on 22.09.2020”, which establishes that she was gang raped on 14 September.
The victim died on 29 September in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. Hathras authorities had forcibly cremated the body that very night while keeping away the aggrieved family members whose request to take it home for one last time fell on deaf ears.
On 1 October, Uttar Pradesh ADG (law and order) Prashant Kumar claimed that the victim wasn’t raped, citing the FSL report due to absence of semen. The FSL report was based on samples collected eight days after the alleged offence took place.
Main accused Sandeep, according to the charge sheet, was “aggravated” after the victim refused his advances towards her.
In Hathras’ Boolgarhi village, dominated by Thakurs and Brahmins, almost everyone in the upper caste felt that the four men were framed because of their caste and for compensation by the Dalit woman’s family.
Thakurs are the largest community in Boolgarhi, while Brahmins are the second biggest group, at just about half the Thakur population. The Valmikis — the community which the victim belonged to — are minuscule in comparison, with just three families, all connected to each other.
The victim’s family has been living under constant protection of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), with CCTV cameras placed near the entrances. Even a year after the crime when ThePrint had visited the village, there were murmurs of how the “four men are men” and the case is of “honour killing”.
“Today it (is us). Tomorrow it could be anyone else. Is this what our justice looks like? Our lives were already hanging by a thread and now what will happen? They will uproot us,” the brother said.
“This is all politics — politics of showing Dalits their place. So who assaulted and killed my sister?” he said, sobbing on the phone.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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