It’s bad enough when you’re a Dalit family at the receiving end of the upper caste Jat community’s wrath in Uttar Pradesh. What if the state police force too was against you?
That’s the story of one such Dalit family, and The Quint has a recording of a phone conversation (audio below) which shows clearly that the police in Khekra, Baghpat district, Uttar Pradesh are taking orders from the same Jat family that is terrorising this family.
The conversation is between Sumit, a Dalit, and Aman Singh, the Sub Inspector of Khera police station. The subject of the conversation is Ravi, Sumit’s brother. When Ravi eloped with Krishna, a girl from a Jat family, the Khap panchayat ordered that Ravi’s and Sumit’s sisters be gang-raped and paraded naked as punishment.
In the conversation below, Sumit is discussing the particulars of Ravi’s and Krishna’s arrest after their elopement, and the subsequent charging of Ravi with a fake drug possession case.
The Incriminating Phone Call
Sumit (Dalit man): “Humne aapki madad ki Ravi aur Krishna ko Meerut se pakadwane me. Lekin aapne hi mere bhai ke upar doda ka galat mukadma laga diya” (We helped you capture Ravi and Krishna. But you in turn slapped a false narcotics case on to my brother.)
Aman Singh (Sub Inspector): “Usme kaunsa bada jurm hai. Doda me koi saja toh hoti nahi hai. 15-20 din waha (jail) reh lega. Public bhi yaha shaant ho legi. Wo toh ganja ki baat kar rahe the. Maine ganja toh lagaya bhi nahi. Ganja, charas ki baat kar rahe the.” (What’s the great harm in that?! There is no punishment for poppy husk possession; at the most he will stay in jail for 15-20 days. Meanwhile, the public would have calmed down. I didn’t book him for possessing ganja and other narcotics. They were insisting on ganja and charas-possession charges.)
Sumit: “Kaun? Ladki wale bol rahe the? (Who are ‘they’? The girl’s family?)
Aman Singh: Haan (Yes)
“Yes, of course. I was taking instructions from the (Jat) girl’s family and have concocted an NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) case against your brother,” is the message the policeman is sending.
This casual exchange belies a chilling reality for this Dalit family, which is that in its pursuit of vengeance, a Jat family can bend the rules of law and justice to terrifying levels.
The phone conversation accessed by The Quint leaves very little wriggle room for the policemen of Khekra Police Station to deny that they were acting at the behest of the Jat family.
Why No Probe Against the Khekra Police?
On September 16 this year, the Supreme Court, while hearing Writ Petition (Crl.) 143 of 2015, directed the Delhi Police to provide protection to the two sisters whom the local Khap had ordered to be gang-raped and paraded naked as punishment for their brother’s ‘crime’ of sullying the community’s honour.
But merely ordering protection is not enough. What the court ought to do is direct a thorough probe on all the policemen who were acting hand-in-glove with those who were terrorising the family.
Sub Inspector Aman Singh’s Illegalities
The transcript is only the tip of the iceberg; the list of Sub Inspector Aman Singh’s illegalities is quite long.
An affidavit (below) dated September 10, filed before the Supreme Court by Sub-Inspector Ram Chander Singh of Medical College Police Station, Meerut, holds the key. Ram Chander names Aman Singh as demanding on May 27 that the couple be handed over to him in a separate case against Ravi and his father Dharampal at Khekra.
In the writ petition filed at the Supreme Court, Aman Singh has been accused of violating the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.PC).
On May 21, Aman Singh accompanied members of the Jat family to Welcome Police Station in East Delhi and picked up Ravi’s cousin Satish to take him to Baghpat. He made only a DD (Daily Diary) entry and offered no formal explanation or papers to back his actions. How the police personnel at Welcome police station in the capital allowed him to get away with this patent illegality is another question that requires answers.
It has now been alleged in the Supreme Court petition that Satish was tortured for three days, when he was repeatedly asked to divulge information on the whereabouts of the couple. On May 24, Aman Singh then picked up Narender, Satish’s father. This time round, he dispensed with even the DD entry. Narender was taken to Baghpat, where Krishna’s relatives subjected him to another round of intimidation and abuse.
On August 24, Ravi’s family filed a complaint with the Inspector General (IG) of Police, Meerut Range, drawing his attention to the string of illegalities it had been subjected to, and asking him to probe all those personnel – besides just Aman Singh – who had aided the Khap members. It could well be the case that Singh wasn’t acting alone.
Till date, there has been no word on the fate of this complaint, and the criminal elements in khaki still have a free pass.
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