Caste bias seen in rape cases
A cursory look at the recent incidents of violence against Dalit women in Haryana shows that caste bias is deeply entrenched not only in committing crimes but also when they come up for investigation. From the filing of FIR to the medical examination to investigating the matter, there is a lack of professionalism, said advocate Vrinda Grover at a press meet recently.
In the case of the alleged abduction, rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Jind which received wide press coverage recently, the Superintendent of Police, Hissar, Satish Balan told the family members on Tuesday that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences post mortem report (the third) has ruled out rape and the hymen of the girl was intact. He insisted it was a suicide. However, women of the village told him: “We are women and we saw her body and we saw what was done to it. Don’t try to tell us it wasn’t rape,” according to advocate Rajat Kalsan of the Human Rights Law Network. The AIIMS report has still not been handed over to the family or the advocate.
With no proper figures available to quantify the atrocities, some voluntary organisations have been recording the cases. In Hisar alone, there have been 25 rape cases of Dalit girls in the past one year, said Rajat. Some of the cases are: An 18-year-old girl in Daya village was gang-raped by four people. All the accused have been released and the girl has dropped out of school. In Dabra village, 10 people from the dominant caste raped a 16-year-old girl. The case is pending in High Court.
A girl at Kalsi in Karnal was raped by three men from the dominant caste and she was threatened to not disclose it. A month later, her mother was abducted, raped and murdered allegedly by the same three persons. In the same village, in August a minor girl was kidnapped and gang-raped by two men in a moving car.
In October last, a 13-year-old girl was abducted from the hospital and gang-raped in Safidon, Panipat.
In May this year, a class 8 student was gang-raped and a video film was shot in Kurukshetra. All the three accused have been released on bail.
Apart from the fact that the gang-rapes were committed by dominant caste men on Dalit girls, they have some common features: Girls were abducted, gang-raped in isolated places, given sedative and threatened to not disclose the matter to anyone. The victim girls dropped out of school and the accused allegedly enjoyed community’s protection.
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