Video Editor: Md. Ibrahim
Sonal (name changed) was 17 when four boys in her village near Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh had allegedly tried to rape her and had burnt down her house in March 2017. Reason? Caste hierarchy, she says.
Sonal, who has now shifted from her village to Ghaziabad, narrated what happened on the fateful evening of 14 March 2017.
She says she tried screaming to her brother who was taking a nap inside one of the rooms in the shed but gradually fell unconscious.
Sonal’s brother, Raja, says he rushed to the door of the shed when he heard his sister’s cry but a few other men from the village dragged him out of the backdoor into the fields and brutally thrashed him before leaving him to die near the village tower.
When he gained consciousness, he remembers lying in a hospital bed in Bulandshahr.
Meanwhile, Raja alleges, the Pandits had ransacked his home and set it on fire along with two of his family’s motorbikes. From what he has heard from the rest of his family, he also alleges that the police was present in the village when his house was burnt down.
His allegations were corroborated by one of the accused and the village chowkidaar who admitted that the police, who were deployed to maintain law and order, had gone out for tea when the house was gutted.
A complaint was registered against 16 members of a Pandit family and despite serious charges like attempt to rape and violation of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Atrocities) Act, all the accused were let out on bail by Bulandshahr session court in June 2017.
Pankaj Sharma, one of the accused in the case, also alleged that Sonal’s family was misusing the SC/ST Atrocities Act since it was never a Dalit vs Brahmin matter.
However, he told The Quint that the next morning (15 March 2017) he had seen Raja, who was found in a “bad condition”, being taken in an ambulance.
The neighbouring Valmiki family in question also alleged that Raja has fabricated the case to implicate the Pandits when in reality the fight was between two Dalit families.
Speaking to The Quint, Raja refuted claims of an internal scuffle and said the Pandits had bribed his neighbours with Rs 5 lakh and land to strengthen their case.
Even after more than a year, Sonal and her family alleged regular threats and intimidation from the Pandits in the village.
Denying the allegations of intimidation, Pankaj told The Quint, “These are all false claims because like all other harijans, these people also come and clean the garbage from our houses every day. Who is threatening them? If we threatened them, they would have left the village by now.”
He further said, “SC/ST Act is being misused by 80 percent people and only 20 percent actually needs the act to be in place.”
According to NCRB data released in 2017, Uttar Pradesh recorded more than a quarter of crimes against the country’s scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The number across the country had also seen a spike of 5.5 percent in 2016, according to NCRB.
Despite the data, the Supreme Court of India on 20 March, citing an increase in the number of false cases, ordered certain safeguards against arrest under the SC/ST Act. The move was seen by many as an attempt to dilute the act.
The bill, in its original form, was passed by the Lok Sabha on 6 August.
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot asserted that the NDA government favoured reservation "and will continue to be in favour reservation for SC/ST".
The amendment, he said, will strengthen the legislative provisions to protect SC/STs.
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