On Wednesday morning, the small village of Katra, in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district woke up to a chilling sight. Two teenage girls were found hanging from a mango tree in an orchid. The two girls, who were cousins and aged 14 and 15 years, had gone missing from their house on Tuesday night. The post-mortem report confirmed rape of the two girls ,the autopsy also confirmed that they were strangled. Their families allege that they were first brutally gang-raped by four men of the village and then hanged. They also alleged that for many hours after the girls went missing the local police refused to register a first information report. It was only when angry villagers sat under the tree and prevented authorities from taking them down until the suspects were arrested, that the police was forced to swing into action mode. Till that time, TV crews had already captured the grisly visuals of the girls’ dead bodies swaying in the wind and the media took up the story thereafter. The case has managed to send shock waves across for various reasons: Firstly , even though police apathy has entered our common lexicon, here two policemen are actually accused of taking part in the assault of the girls. The father of one of the girls has alleged that head of the local police station ignored his pleas and refused to register a FIR many hours after the girls went missing. Had the cops responded immediately and left in search of the girls when the family approached them, the girls could have been recovered safe and sound, Mansingh Chauhan, Superintendent of Police, City, Badaun told NDTV. Secondly , the case has again revealed the ugly underbelly of India’s age old caste system, which is sadly existing and thriving in full flow, particularly in rural areas. The family belongs to the Dalit community and the perpetrators of the heinous crime belonged to the higher Yadav caste. For centuries, dalits have been at the receiving end of discrimination in India, wherein a upper caste born would feel free to harass, rape and even murder lower castes with impunity and such cases show that things haven’t changed much, particularly for the dalit women, who are harassed, taunted and raped at will-many times just for their crime of belonging to the low caste.Uttar Pradesh is still strongly divided by caste and religion, a fact expertly exploited by politicians for their political gains. Here, all the main accused are from the influential Yadav upper caste. Brothers Pappu and Awadhesh Yadav –the alleged rapists have been arrested, whereas constables Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav have been terminated. Four others Urvesh Yadav (brother of Pappu and Awadhesh), policeman Chhatrapal Yadav and two unidentified persons are still at large. The father has alleged that when he went to the local police station and asked that Yadavs house be searched, the constables took the side of the culprits.They abused and misbehaved with us. the father said. Had they acted on time, the girls could have been saved.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:42:55 +0000
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