CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

HATHRAS GANG - RAPE

- Ashish Misra

On September 14, a 19-year-old Dalit girl from Boolgadhi village went to a farm, with her mother and a male family member, to collect fodder. The village falls under Chandpa police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. While at work, she was attacked and gang-raped, allegedly by four upper-caste men from her village. The girl’s mother found her with a deep neck injury, gasping for breath with her tongue cut off.

Doctors at Aligarh’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital said at the time of admission the same day that the girl was paralysed with a severe spinal cord injury and had several broken bones. Her mother paints an even more horrific picture. “When I saw my daughter (on the farm), she was bleeding. Her tongue had been cut off—the police are lying when they deny it. Before she fainted, my daughter named one of the accused into her brother’s ears. We first thought village boys had thrashed her, but later it was found that she had been gang-raped.”

Boolgadhi village, located some 400 km from state capital Lucknow, has a small Dalit population—90 of 300-odd resident families. Despite the gruesome nature of the crime, the UP police took five days to bestir itself and record the girl’s statement. They visited the village only after BSP supremo Mayawati and Bhim Army founder Chandrashekhar condemned the incident. One youth from the village was arrested on September 19. On September 22, eight days after the attack, the police pressed charges of gangrape and attempt to murder against him and three more youths from the village, who were subsequently arrested. All four men have also been booked under provisions of the SC/ ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.