Mere gaon ke mahasabha mein yeh dhamki di gayi ki aur kisi ne bhi agar kisi aur caste se shaadi karne ki koshish ki toh unhe beech chorahe me phaansi de di jayegi. (The Jat Mahasabha of my village threatened that anyone attempting to marry outside their caste would be hanged in public.)
— Ravi Kumar to The Quint
21-year-old Ravi Kumar, a Dalit youth from Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat District, who has been hounded and tortured by the police for eloping with Krishna, a Jat woman, speaks exclusively to The Quint (video below). Ravi speaks of months of harassment, beatings and threats to his family. A few weeks ago, Ravi’s sisters were even ‘sentenced’ to be gang-raped by a Khap Panchayat.
It’s not just the Jat family or the village Khap Panchayat that Ravi’s family has had to deal with. On 22nd September, The Quint reported extensively on how even some policemen of Khekra police station hounded Ravi. The report conclusively established that the police have been taking instructions from Krishna’s family.
Tortured By the Police, Beaten by Jat Family
Ravi adds that not only did the policemen torture him in custody, they also gave a free hand to his lover’s relatives to thrash and abuse him.
Khekra police station ke SO ne mujhe dande se maara. Uske baad lockup mein SI Aman, ladki ka bhai Vikas, Chacha Manoj aur Sudhir Rathi ne mara. (The officer in charge of the Khekra police station beat me up with a lathi. After that Sub-Inspector Aman and the girl’s brother and two uncles subjected me to another round of beating.)
— Ravi Kumar to The Quint
Documents available with The Quint prove custodial torture, and raise serious questions about police accountability.
On 29 May, Ravi underwent a medical examination after a day in police custody. The report (below), prepared by the Community Healthcare Centre, Baghpat substantiates Ravi’s allegations against the police. It states that his body had many contusions (bruises usually caused by ruptured blood capillaries) caused by a hard and blunt object, and none of the injuries were more than 24 hours old.
Having spent three months in jail on false charges, Ravi is now free, after the Supreme Court on 16 September ordered his release on bail. He is still as much in love with Krishna as he was earlier, but is in agony over the treatment meted out to him. He also asserts that the rape and other charges filed against him and his family members are manifestly false.
Main yeh chahta hu ki agar ladki (Krishna) mere saath khush hai toh mere pass aaye. Lekin yeh mere aur mere parivar ke upar rape aur jaan se marne ka case dala gaya hai, wo bilkul jhootha hai. (If Krishna is happy with me, I want her to return. But all the cases filled against me and my family members are false.)
— Ravi Kumar to The Quint
Dalit Family Cannot Return Home
Although the Supreme Court has directed the Delhi police to provide protection to Ravi and his family (and we did see a constable armed with a rifle constantly by his side), they are still mortally petrified of returning to Baghpat.
Sumit, Ravi’s elder brother, himself a constable with the Delhi Police says:
I will never send my family back to my village. They (Khap) will kill my family. I don’t trust the UP police. They are not protectors of the law but protectors of the Khaps.
– Sumit, Ravi’s brother to The Quint
It’s evident now that the conduct of Sub-Inspector Aman Singh, the lynchpin of the police prosecution, along with Subodh Singh, the SHO (Station House Officer) should invite severe penal action.
Section 330B of the Indian Penal Code makes the use of force for extracting a confession a criminal offence. And in this case, the offence becomes all the more galling because the narcotic substance was planted on Ravi, as Aman Singh candidly admits here (audio recording).
Questions Swirling Around Police
That’s not all. Can the police explain who allowed Krishna’s relatives to enter the police station cell and beat up Ravi? Under which authority of law were civilians allowed into the lockup? Can SI Aman Singh explain from where he got the 2.5 kilograms of poppy husk planted on Ravi?
And, can the authorities answer for Aman Singh and his conspirators still not being booked under Section 3 (1) (viii) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act? This provision makes it a criminal offence to institute malicious or false suits or criminal cases against a member of a Scheduled Caste.
On 16 September, the UP government and police were granted four weeks to respond to the writ petition one of Ravi’s sisters has filed in the Supreme Court. Whether the court will give them a bloodied nose remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain - Ravi and his family now live in constant fear, their lives lacerated, maybe forever.
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