Hathras – Politics of Rape and Caste

 

The millet field - the scene of the crime

Hathras Case  originated from a report published in Hindi Daily Jagran on the 15^th September 2020 .  The report was about a tragic incident happened on the 14^th September 2020 to a 19 year old Dalit girl from Bulgadhi Village in Hathras. 

 

The dalit girl was gathering fodder for animals with her mother in a millet field near her house and one Thakur by name Sandeep, due to a history of bad blood, dragged her away and attempted to strangulate her to death.

The Dalit Girl – the victim created a commotion due to which Sandeep – the accused fled the scene. The mother of the victim rescued her and took her to the Chandpa Police Station. The victim’s brother also accompanied her mother and her victim sister to the police station.

Jagran News Paper did not mention any sexual assault on the victim whose name was also mentioned in the report by the paper and if it was rape, the name of the victim might not have been revealed.

The accused was said to have used her dupatta for his deadly criminal act to strangulate her which had resulted in her death on the 29^th September 2020 – 15 days after the tragic incident - at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi where she was referred by the Jawarharlal Nehru Medical Collge and Hospital in Aligarh after her condition worsened even after their treatment.

The accused allegedly dragged her away by dupatta around her neck injuring her spinal cord in the process. She ended up biting her tongue while being strangled.

The accused is not a stranger to the family of victim, but, living nearby lane in the same village.

The police registered a complaint and were able to record the victim's statement only on 22 September.

Some Media stated that 19 FIRs had been filed by the Uttar Pradesh police in the aftermath of the alleged gang rape. The charges listed by police on the main FIR include inciting caste based divides, religious discrimination, doctoring electronic evidence, a conspiracy against the state and defamation.

Hathras police arrested the four accused — Sandip, Ramu, Lavkush and Ravi — on charges of attempt to murder, gang rape and violations of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and were lodged in jail.

The autopsy registered the cause of death as "injury to the cervical spine by blunt-force trauma”.

The medical report recorded by the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College at the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh on the 14th of September notes that the attendant of the victim had alleged neck injuries due to strangulation. The general examination noted that the “patient is conscious, oriented to time, place and person at the time of examination.”

The patient history recorded on the 14th also only mentioned strangulation and one perpetrator. Hence, it is safe to assume that on the 14th, the victim or the family did not tell the doctors that the girl was allegedly sexually abused.

Dr. MA Malik, CMO of Aligarh Hospital stated as under in regard to the condition of victim girl and other details at the time of admission of the patient as per BBC Reporter:

“The emergency wing of our medical staff had attended to her. At that time, her tongue was slit. There was a deep mark on her neck. Both her hands and feet had stopped working. She was not able to sit. This happens in case of spinal injury. Her eyes were also swollen. The day when she came, she was unable to speak. Her parents told us the patient’s history.

At the time of admission, no one in the family had told us that she was raped. They told that someone had tried to strangulate her. Accordingly, we admitted her in the neurosurgery department.

On 22^nd September – 8 days after the incident, the neurosurgery department informed that the patient was fit enough to give a statement and at 5 pm on that date, the patient was said to have stated that she was raped.” 

But FSL report gave no hint about the alleged rape of the victim. The exact relevant portion is given below:

 Final Opinion:

1. There are no signs suggestive of vaginal intercourse

2. There are evidences of physical assault (injuries over the neck and the back.)  

In regard to ‘no rape report’, the CMO was of the opinion that as the sample for FSL was taken on September 25, 11 days after the incident, sperms had not been found. The doctor had further clarified that the sperms can’t be found in a rape victim after three to four days of the act and hence there is no possibility of finding sperm after 11 days.

Now let us examine the case from Police Angle.

Hathras SP Vikrant Vir said that on the 22^nd September 2020 after the girl’s statement was recorded, gang rape charges were added to the FIR and three more people were booked.

SP Prakash Kumar said the girl’s statement under section 161 of CrPC was not recorded earlier by the investigation officer as the girl had been in the ICU after she was referred to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Aligarh from Hathras district hospital.

The girl was reported to be out of danger, when she gave her statement to the Police on the 22^nd September, although she was still in the ICU.

The initial complaint related to the matter filed by the brother mentioned no allegations of rape.

The most horrible action of the police was its cremation of the girl’s body brought from Delhi at about 2.30 am on 29-30^th September 2020 which had made headline news bringing shame internally and internationally to Yogi Adityanath’s BJP Government without family’s consent and against their request to take the body to their home for last rites before cremation which was summarily rejected saying that it would lead to communal riots.

But, Prashant Kumar, ADG (law and order), said that the family's consent was taken. It was reported that father of the girl witnessed the cremation.  

The forced cremation led the Allahabad High Court to take suo moto cognizance. The bench also asked the victim's family, the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police to appear before it. The bench added, "The incidents which took place after the death of the victim on 29.09.2020 leading up to her cremation, as alleged, have shocked our conscience".

SSP Vikrant Vir had transferred the SHO of Chandpa police station to police lines for failing to promptly act in the case.

On 3 October, the state government suspended five police officers including the Superintendent of Police.

Further on 4 October, Yogi Adityanath recommnded a CBI probe. The victim’s family was not in favour of the CBI investigation and wanted a judicial probe to be conducted in the case.  They were also against Narco Test and a Congress supporter, Saket Gokhale, had approached the Allahabad High Court to prevent the investigating authorities from administering a Narco test on the victim’s family.

However, the CBI began its investigation on 10 October, amid nationwide outrage, after notification from central government.

We have to wait for CBI report and thereafter court verdict to know whether the rape of the Dalit girl by four Thakur men was true or not.

Now, let us jot down some points emerged favourable to the accused:

1.   One of the accused, Ravi, and his father Narendra had been arrested 15–20 years ago for allegedly assaulting the victim's grandfather. Both spent about 20 days in jail. This was being quoted to prove family feuds.  

2.   Aligarh. Inspector Chandpa PS Deepak Sharma said that a longstanding family feud existed between the two sides and there was also a case ongoing in the Courts.

3.   Ramu was one of the four arrested for the alleged assault and rape on the basis of the victim’s statement. Ramu was said to be working at the factory when the unfortunate Hathras incident took place as per the attendance calendar for both 14th and 15th of September proved that he could not have been present during the crime that took place in Hathras.

4.   The UP police claimed that call records showed that the woman’s family knew the main accused, Sandeep Thakur. As per the Call Detail Report released, around 100 phone calls were made from a phone number registered in the name of the girl's brother and the main accused Sandeep Thakur between October 2019 and March 2020.

As a footnote, a letter with thumb impressions of the main accused, Sandeep, who wrote the letter, and the three others — Lavkush, Ravi and Ramu contained the following version:

“The girl lived in my village and I was friendly with her. We would speak over the phone sometimes. Her family did not approve of this. I had met her on the day of the incident. Her mother and brother were with her. She asked me to leave and I came home. Later, I got to know that she had been hospitalized.”

The family dismissed the letter as a “tactic” to escape punishment.

 The State government announced a compensation of Rs.10 lacs to the victim's family and a junior assistant job for a family member. Apart from this, the family will also be allotted a house in Hathras under State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) scheme.

The Uttar Pradesh Police reportedly discovered a suspected “Naxalite link” to the alleged Hathras gangrape case, after a woman was found to be living at the victim’s home and reportedly passing herself off as a family member viz. posing as victim’s sister and bhabhi (sister-inlaw).

Her name is Rajkumari Bansal of Madhya Pradesh who is a physician working at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Medical College in the pharmacology. She was with the family from 4^th to 6^th October 2020 supposed to provide support and financial aid to the family who was being harassed. Madhya Pradesh minister Bhupendra Singh alleged that the woman — believed to be a native of the state — has a “Naxalite connection”.

UP Police also alleged that Popular Front of India PFI  was also involved and that four of them were arrested, while they were  on their way to Hathra for inciting caste and communal violence.

Consistent with the above PFI link, a website called ‘Justice for Hathras’ was created and thousands of people were linked to the website through fake IDs. According to the probe, the website had received funding from Amnesty International, Fundamentalist organizations based out of Islamic Countries.

The objective of the website was to create a wedge between the majority communities in the country and undermine the Yogi and Modi government in Uttar Pradesh and India respectively. Objectionable content pertaining to inciting riots and safeguarding oneself during the riots was found on the website.

The United Nations in India expressed concerns over gender based violence. In the statement they mentioned that, "it is essential that authorities ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice speedily and families are empowered to seek timely justice, social support, counseling, healthcare and rehabilitation".

Indian students, professors and scholars staged a protest in United Kingdom in memory of the victims. Protests were staged in the United States of America, particularly in Times Square, Headquarters of the United Nations, Michigan and Philadelphia, against the Indian government. B. R. Ambedkar followers in the parts of South America, North America, Middle East, Europe and Asia demanded justice for the victim.

A single incident inviting International attention and support seems to have a wider implication of political overtones rather than their intentions to get justice. Many such cases of rapes on Dalits had happened even after Hathras incident at neighboring state of Rajasthan, but, there was no sign of any national and International wild cries of “Dalits Lives Matter” like the one we witnessed in respect of Hathras. Hence selective cries of “Dalits Lives Matter” expose their political agenda of tarnishing the name of Modi Government in particular.

 

Large rallies have been held in support of the accused, attended by their relatives

Role of the Media in reporting this incident was something to be condemned, as they had wanted to live up to their own respective agenda of insensitive reporting.

BBC’s Geeta Pandey had bent upon her report of ‘rape’ in the Hathras incident from the start and her elaborate interpretation of ‘zabardasti’ explaining the Urdu word to mean ‘coercion’ or ‘force’ which she said ‘rural Indian women  used this word for rape’.   So much so, it becomes her mission to force the readers/viewers to see the incident as ‘rape and caste’ and not otherwise without any supporting undisputed evidences. BBC reporter wanted to support her ‘rape theory’ duly seconded by Shabnam Hashmi, a women’s rights activist.

Anuja Jaiswal is another Times of India Reporter who had tweeted a video of Shyoraj Jivan, Congress leader who said that he was willing to go to jail but would not tolerate any Thakur or anyone else looking at Valmiki women with bad intentions.  

I like the readers to go through the tweet below of Anuja Jaiswal reporting Congress Leader inciting most outrageous communal and caste overtones in his outburst.

 

“We will #gouge their #eyes & #cut their #arms, if anyone tries to see our community girls with bad intentions,”said #Congress leader, #ShyorajJivanValmiki, adding he is ready to go 2 jail for committing such crime. He had gone to meet the gang-rape victim’s family members. #UP

On 3 October 2020, Indian National Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the victim's family to condole the death of Dalit Girl and also to confirm their full support to get justice for the murder of their young girl.

 Rahul’s Drama of Fall into a pit during their much publicized trip to Harthas added much colour to the incident.  

To sum up,

1. The rape charge was added eight days after the incident and so were the names of three of the accused.

2. The family of the victim had also flip-flopped on CBI inquiry and subsequently, pieces of information had surfaced which appeared to contradict the dominant narrative of the matter.

3. Under such circumstances, a CBI inquiry appears to be the sensible course forward to resolve various aspects of the Hathras Case and to satisfy the doubts that anyone might have.

Unless “All Lives Matter” becomes the voice of the world, Truth is bound to be crucified at the altar of Politics of Hate and Injustice.

SATYAMEVA JAYATHE.