New Delhi: An enormous challenge confronts the Haryana Police in probing the alleged gang rape of a 26-year-old woman from Bengal at the farmer protests at the Tikri border with Delhi, who died of Covid-19 on 30 April — the lack of a medical report, post mortem examination or dying declaration.
In the absence of these, the police are now having to rely on statements of people whom the woman confided in, including her father; and a video recorded on 16 April, in which she talks about being “forcefully pinned down, kissed and then blackmailed” by Anil Malik, member of a body called the Kisan Social Army. The police also have some ‘technical evidence’ including text messages and phone calls between him and the woman.
“We do have technical evidence, statements and a video, but since the post mortem was not conducted, and there was no medico-legal certificate or dying declaration, the case becomes challenging,” a senior police officer said.
“Currently the date of the assault and how (the rape) happened is not clear but we are working towards establishing the chronology. The woman was admitted to the hospital on 25 April, she died on 30 April, and we received a complaint on 9 May. Had we been informed about the rape before 30 April, we would have got her medical done and it would have been beneficial for the case,” the officer added.
Malik and his associate Anup Singh Chanaut are absconding, and untraceable by phone. However, in a Facebook Live video circulated by media websites, Chanaut has denied the allegations, though he did say he was aware the woman was molested on a train journey to Delhi. He has also questioned why the complaint was filed after so many days, but said he was ready to face investigation.
Malik and his associate Anup Singh Chanaut are absconding, and untraceable by phone. However, Chanaut did post a video message on Facebook proclaiming his innocence.
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Delayed FIR
According to information with the police, the woman, who came to Delhi from West Bengal to join the farmers’ protest in early April, was first allegedly molested on a train by Anil Malik, and then raped inside a tent at Tikri border. Malik, along with an associate, also allegedly attempted to abduct her. She then fell sick on 21 April with Covid-like symptoms, was hospitalised on 25 April, and died on 30 April.
Nine days after her death, on 9 May, the woman’s father filed an official complaint with the Haryana Police, accusing Anil Malik and Anup Singh Chanaut from the Kisan Social Army of raping and harassing his daughter.
The police registered an FIR on the same day, under various IPC sections, including section 376D (gang rape), against six people, including some of the woman’s male and female friends. In a fresh letter to the police, the woman’s father has now requested to remove names of Ankur Sangwan, Kovita Arya, Jagdish Brar and Yogita Suhag, who “actually helped her”.
The police have issued notices to the six people as well as Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav, asking them to join the probe. Yadav was questioned by the police Wednesday.
Yadav, who addressed a press conference about the case this Monday, said he had spoken to the woman and her father at different times in April, and gave some details about her alleged abduction by Malik and Chanaut. But he told ThePrint that he was not aware of the rape charge earlier, and that the woman had spoken to his wife and said had been ‘misbehaved with’. Yadav said he had left the decision on whether to approach the police to the woman’s father.
It all began with a train journey
In early April, a delegation of the six persons named in the FIR went to West Bengal as part of a ‘BJP Harao’ campaign by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of farmer organisations running the protests against the Narendra Modi government’s three farm laws passed last year. There, they met the woman for the first time, and she expressed her desire to join the group.
On 10 April, she left West Bengal for Delhi along with Malik, Chanaut, Sangwan, Brar and Arya by train to join the protest at Tikri.
The train journey, however, turned out to be traumatic for her. According to the FIR accessed by ThePrint, while everyone slept at night, Malik approached the woman’s berth and forcefully kissed her.
The woman even described the episode in a video shot on 16 April, and said she did not escalate it to the authorities as she did not want to harm the farmers’ movement.
“At night in the train, everyone went back to their seats (berths) to sleep, and I too slept off. In the middle of the night, when I woke up, I found Anil sitting on my seat. The moment I asked him why he was here, he forced himself on me, pinned my hands on the seat, and forcefully kissed my lips,” she said in the video. “I couldn’t tell anyone about this because I didn’t want to harm the farmers’ movement. But Anil kept on blackmailing me.”
Her friend Yogita Suhag, who shot the video, told ThePrint that she managed to inform some farmer leaders about this assault, but everyone tried to “hush it up”.
“I started getting threats. I tried to do my bit by telling the leaders on the ground, but everyone just wants to hush it up. Anil also messaged me saying that if I escalate this further, he will commit suicide,” she said.
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The alleged assault
On 12 April, when the group reached the protest site at Tikri border, the woman stayed in a tent with Anil Malik, Anup Singh Chanaut and Ankur Sangwan, but was not comfortable, her father alleged in his complaint.
The woman even told her father over the phone about what had happened in the train, and that Malik and Chanaut were not “decent people”, and he advised her to speak to some of the women in the organisation for help.
“She was feeling very hesitant while speaking. She said Anil and Anup are not decent people and they were pressuring and blackmailing her. I then told her to speak to some women there and also inform the local committee immediately for help. I also asked to find another tent for her to stay,” the father said in his complaint.
But during her stay at the tent, she was assaulted, he alleged.
The woman’s friend Kovita Arya also told ThePrint that she had mentioned being sexually assaulted by Malik.
“She told me Anil and Anup were forcing themselves on her in the tent. She also said Anil threatened her and made her promise that she would keep this a secret,” Arya said.
The FIR went on to state that on 16 and 17 April, the woman told her father that she had passed blood in urine.
“I asked her to immediately take help from women around her and see a doctor if required. She also said she had moved to another tent with Yogita’s help,” the father said in his complaint.
On 17 April, the father spoke to Yogita Suhag, asking her to help his daughter. The next day, the woman, along with Yogita Suhag, Jagdish Brar and a farmer leader Himmat Singh Brar met two lawyers at the Tikri protest site and decided to inform leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) about this sexual harassment.
“The same evening, with Yogita’s help, she shifted to a tent near pillar No. 774, where there were more women,” the father said.
Hospitalisation and death
According to the FIR, after she was admitted to a hospital on 25 April for a suspected Covid infection, her father came to Delhi on 29 April to care for her. There, she told him she was sexually assaulted by Anil Malik at the KSA tent, and Anup Singh Chanaut helped him. This is the first time she told him clearly about sexual assault.
“She was under pressure and constantly watched by Anil and Anup at the tent. She told me ‘hamara saath kharaab kaam hua hai (bad things have been done to me)’,” the father said in his complaint, adding that this is how he realised why, on a previous phone call, she had happily informed him that she had had a menstrual discharge, which was why she was passing blood with urine.
“She asked me to ensure that Anil and Anup were punished. She also asked me to ensure that the farmers’ movement should not be harmed. She died in the morning of 30 April,” he said.
The father further alleged that on 30 April, the local police visited the hospital and pressured him to give in writing that his daughter died of Covid.
“They told me that if I wanted to take my daughter’s body, I would have to give a statement that she died of Covid-19. At that time, I was emotionally torn, and wanted my daughter’s body immediately. So, I gave a short statement to the police,” he said.
The police, however, denied this, with sources saying the woman’s father “took the body back at his will and did not mention about sexual assault even on that day”.
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Abduction attempt
On 21 April, the woman had developed a mild fever, and then more symptoms of Covid-19.
Her concerned father contacted Avik Shah from Jai Kisan Andolan on 24 April, requesting for medical help. Shah put the father in touch with Yogendra Yadav, who then called the woman and asked authorities to extend proper medical care to her.
Yadav told ThePrint that on the night of 24 April, his wife, who is of Bengali origin, spoke to the woman to know her medical condition, and she hinted she had been “misbehaved with”, but did not elaborate further.
When Malik and Chanaut found out that the woman was directly in touch with the leadership of the SKM, they allegedly decided to move her from Tikri.
The woman’s father alleged that he got a call from a member of the local committee, who asked him for his permission to send the woman back to Bengal, but he refused.
“I refused and said she needs medical attention. They made me speak to my daughter and she sounded very low. She also relented on the condition that she should be accompanied by a woman, and that Anil and Anup must be kept away from her,” he said in the complaint.
But he alleged that during the call, he realised that she was being taken somewhere in a car with Malik and Chanaut.
“I got worried and contacted Dr Amit, who then informed Mr Yadav,” he said.
Yadav said in a press conference on 10 May that he called up the woman and realised something was amiss, and she was being taken somewhere against her will.
“When I called her, it felt as if someone was listening to our conversation. So, I asked her in Bangla, if the people taking her are ‘good people’ and she said ‘no’. Then I knew something was wrong and I immediately told Anil and Anup to turn the car and return to Delhi,” Yadav said.
“I also told her to send me her live location, which at that time was in Hansi (near Hisar). So, I again called the two men and sternly asked them to return, or face action. I also asked them to share their live location so that we know that she is being brought back safely. After she reached Delhi, she was immediately taken to the hospital,” he said.
When ThePrint asked Yadav why he did not inform the police on 25 April itself, knowing that the men were taking the woman against her will, he said he “did not have complete information and so left it to the father to take the call”.
“I told the two men that if they deviate from the route, I will call the police. Since they brought her back safely, I did not go to the police. Also, I did not have complete information on what was happening. We left it to the woman’s father to take the decision to call the police,” he said.
Chanaut’s defence
In a Facebook Live video put out Tuesday, Anup Singh Chanaut denied all allegations against him, saying he was not aware of any incident of rape at Tikri border.
He, however, did admit that the woman was molested inside the train and he was aware of it, “following which Anil Malik was given a warning and was also barred from participating in the organisation’s activities”.
Chanaut said he was ready to face investigation, and questioned why the woman’s father filed a complaint only nine days after her death.
“When the woman told her father about the train episode, why did he not escalate the issue with senior leaders or file a police complaint? Also, why did he not involve the police when his daughter told him that Anil was not a decent man and that she was uncomfortable in the tent she was staying at? This FIR should have been registered much before,” he said.
“I, however, do not know why they are calling this rape. They should tell us when and where it happened. There is no one who was clearly and specifically told about this in our group. Maybe it is an attempt to discredit the protest,” Chanaut claimed.
Rejecting the allegation of attempted abduction, he added that the decision to “take the woman back to Bengal” was made by the committee after she fell sick, and her father was informed of it. He further claimed the father was fine with her being sent back home.
“He is lying when he says he told the committee member to not get her back. He asked her to get her. Why would we make so many arrangements otherwise to take her back all the way to Bengal?” he said. “Also, her father jokingly had said that he will serve us machhli ke pakode when we reach their place,” Chanaut said.
He said it was true that the woman refused to go in the car with Malik. “She told me that she will go only if I come along. Although I was not ready to travel, I went for her,” he said.
Explaining why they were in Hisar, west of Delhi, instead of heading for Kolkata in the east, Chanaut said they had to pick up some money and also change the car they were traveling in.
“It is correct that the route to Bengal goes through Jaipur but we took a detour because we had to pick up the rental car that we arranged from a friend on Rs 1,000 a day from Hisar, along with some money. That is when we got calls from the woman’s father and also Mr Yogendra Yadav and we returned,” he said.
“If we were abducting her, why would we take the father’s call, or Mr Yadav’s call? Why would we keep our phones with us? Why would we allow the girl to be in touch with her father constantly? These allegations are baseless,” he said.
‘Senior SKM leaders knew about assault’
While Yadav claimed he had never spoken to the woman before 24 April, or heard of the Kisan Social Army being a part of the farmers’ protest, the police said senior SKM leadership knew about the assault, and that is why many of them are being called in for questioning.
Speaking to ThePrint, Harinder Kaur Bindu, head of the women’s wing of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan, said: “The father is under immense pressure. Senior SKM leaders knew about it, but no one informed us. Hundreds of women live here at this protest site and we protect them. This woman had come all the way to join our movement and was raped.”
She also alleged: “When we started digging, to help the father, we found out that the girl had been bleeding and immediate medical care wasn’t provided. People around the tent knew about it but kept quiet.”
However, several other BKU members like Mandeep Malik contested this claim.
“The woman never said anything about any assault. Yes, we did hear about the assault on the train, but after that we had seen Anil and her together, and they seemed cordial. Hence, no one interfered or said anything,” Malik said.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
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