Naked (vs.) Justice

On March 14, 2006, Latabai and her son, six, were paraded naked in a village in Solapur. Less than six months later, four members of a Dalit family were paraded naked; mother & daughter were allegedly gang-raped

- Shweta Desai

LATABAI, 45, cannot move past the trauma of March 14, 2006. The date is etched in her memory as she recalls the events of the day with almost clinical precision to date, without even batting her eyelids. “What you’ve read in the news reports is all correct,” she says, sitting in a safe house near her native village of Telgaon in north Solapur. “Nagnadhind kadhli hoti” (we were paraded naked).  

It was just after 9:00 am. Latabai was waiting at the bus stop to go to the local police chowki when a large mob from her village gathered and began attacking her violently. Someone grabbed her hair and dragged her to the ground, while others pulled at her saree and tore her blouse. Within minutes, she was stripped naked. Her hands were tied behind her back. Her six-year-old son Pawan was hauled from the school and brought to the village square. He too was stripped naked. Assailed and disrobed, the mother and son were then paraded across the village. The entire village gathered to see the spectacle. Men, women and children jeered at them from a distance, but no one came close to rescue them. “If you open your mouth again or tell anyone about this incident, you will be burned alive in the house,” the mother and son were warned.  

A TV journalist along with social activist Yashwant Fadtare, by chance, happened to pass through Telgaon on the same day, recorded the incident with a handheld camera. “The mob was holding this woman by her hair. She had no clothes on her. We pleaded with the instigators to let her dress at least and let them go,” Fadtare says. The video and photos of the incident and Latabai’s testimony at a subsequent press conference in Solapur, startled Maharashtra, leaving social and political classes agitated and aggrieved.