Rape and Murder: Report of the fact finding investigation

Narinder Kumar Jeet on FB:

20 year old Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered in Jind
Extracts from Report of the fact finding investigation in the case of alleged rape and murder of Dalit girl in Jind district of Haryana, conducted by All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch to ascertain facts All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM)
September 3, 2013

Courtesy Photo

Background to the Formation of the Fact Finding Team:On 24th August, a 20 year old Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered in Jind, Haryana, while she was on her way to write an examination. Her body was found near a canal the next day by the police. There were cigarette burn marks on her body and significant indications of sexual violence. It is clear that she was kidnapped, raped and then murdered.

However, at the time of the fact finding, even after four days the culprits had not been identified or arrested, and there was no progress on the investigation beyond sending the body for post mortem. In fact, the parents of the girl, members of her village and various Dalit activists refused to cremate the body and were sitting on dharna in front of the Jind Civil Hospital to protest against police and administrative apathy and callousness. It was very clear that the Haryana police and administration was exhibiting gross negligence in this case, ignoring the law and evading established investigative procedure.
It is at this point that the All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM) decided to put together a fact finding committee to visit the area, meet the key people involved and ascertain the facts of the case.

The Fact Finding Team: The fact finding team was led by Asha Kowtal AIDMAM. She was accompanied by Kalyani Menon-Sen ( WSS) , Nisha Kumari (Action Aid), Jenny Rowena, (SAVARI), Rajat Kalsan, Dalit activist and lawyer from Haryana, journalists from Tehelka, CNN IBN, The Hindu, Times of India and Dainik Jaagran.

Report of Meeting with the Protestors:The fact finding team arrived in Jind town at around 10:30 am. The team proceeded to the Jind civil hospital to join the protestors who had been staging a dharna with the body of the girl. When the team arrived there, they found about 300 persons including men and women from the nearby villagers who had assembled and were peacefully demonstrating. The team also was informed that a 22 member committee was formed by the community to lead the agitation and also to negotiate with the authorities.
The protestors were raising slogans demanding justice for the girl and against the police inaction in conducting proper investigation. Another concern raised by the protestors was with regard to the police lathi charge on them, false cases and the arrest of four young men.
The Fact Finding Team met the girl’s parents, protestors, DC, SP & DSP and other people and obtained information from them.

Conclusions: From our preliminary investigation, we strongly feel that this is a case possible rape and murder that deserves to be rigorously investigated.
As in several other cases of unnatural death of young Dalit girls in Haryana, the district administration and the police appear eager to close the investigation by declaring that the girl committed suicide. The suicide theory is questionable on several grounds.
• The first post-mortem was clumsily and incompetently conducted, probably by a member of the mortuary staff. This is corroborated by the report of the second post-mortem, which records that the organs were not cleanly or completely removed, and a segment of the large intestine was left hanging outside the body. Any conclusions based on the first post-mortem are therefore completely unreliable and must be rejected.
• The first post mortem report states that the 'hymen' was ruptured and the second one done at Rohtak states that the hymen was intact. . The fact finding team is angry at the callousness which has resulted in such serious lapses and we have ample reason to doubt the procedures that were conducted, and we believe that vital evidence was lost due to the callous attitude of the police and medical officers.
• The post mortem was delayed and was conducted with a shocking lack of rigour or care, probably by an unqualified member of the mortuary staff. The two botched post-mortems have destroyed valuable evidence in the case. The degree of carelessness shown by the police leads to the suspicion that the authorities are more interested in closing the case than in carrying out a proper investigation.
• The fact that rape has not been confirmed in the AIIMS post-mortem is irrelevant, since the body was in a fairly advanced state of decomposition and the uterus had been removed in the first post-mortem. The report of the second post-mortem does in fact record significant bruising and two haematoma inside the vagina, indicating an attempt at forcible intercourse.
We feel that the police and administration has failed on many counts to ensure the rights to safety and bodily integrity of the Dalit community, particularly Dalit women.
• The police failed to register a "missing person" complaint and refused to conduct a prompt search for the missing girl on August 24th, when the incident was first brought to their notice by the mother and relatives.
• They failed to ensure a proper and rigorous post mortem and thus the dead girl's body had to be moved from Jind to Rohtak and AIIMS.
• No one has been arrested even after a week of the girl's death and in spite of all the protests
• No official has either visited the spot of protests or the girl's village. There has been no statement from the concerned officials and there is a general apathy to the protests.
• Instead of using the State machinery to provide justice to the raped and murdered girl, the police have been hell bent on attacking those who are demanding justice. They have brutalized the protestors and even women protestors were attacked by male police officers. Shockingly, in a show of utter contempt to Dalit lives and personhood, the police is said to have kicked the dead body of this girl. This only reveals the really violent attitude of the dominant castes to Dalits in Haryana society.
• The villagers sat with the dead body of the girl for 6 days and had to cremate the body on the 7th day. This is a harrowing and tragic situation for all, compounded by the fact that they have yet to get any kind of justice.
Before we conclude we want to bring attention to an important issue. It is not only the police and the administration in Haryana that has been exhibiting a callous apathy regarding this gross violence on a Dalit woman. The national media and other national activists have also been keeping a chilling silence, which is leaving the villagers at the mercy of the regional police and the State, without access to any national solidarity and support. Till the day of our fact finding visit, there was no substantial coverage of this issue in the National English media. In fact, the only report about it was in TOI where the paper described the protestors as a 'mob that went on rampage."
The villages had been sitting on a protest with the dead body for more than 5 days and there were reports in the Haryana media about this. However , the Delhi media, in spite of the fact that Jind is so close, failed to make it a national news, thereby bringing attention to the violent situation in which Dalits and especially Dalit women are caught in Haryana. This is in spite of the huge number of such brutal gang rapes reported in this area in the past few months. In fact, more than 22 such cases of brutal rapes of Dalit women have been documented and are in various stages of legal battles for justice at present. Dalit organizations like All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (Haryana and Delhi) had also conducted a protest against these gang rapes in 2012 which travelled to 10 districts of Haryana.
Further, we also need to see that this national apathy and silence is happening at a time when there is a loud outbreak of protests and statements against the gang rape of the Mumbai journalist. More importantly this is also happening after India gained international recognition for having witnessed the largest urban protests against the brutal gang rape of Nirbhaya in Dec, 2012.
We need to seriously think of the reasons behind such apathy and device ways to resist and change it.
In conclusion, the Fact finding team would like to reiterate the demands that have been put forward by the family of the raped and murdered girl and the many groups and organizations that are protesting this brutal atrocity on the young Dalit woman.

Our recommendations:The Fact finding team has listed the demands that have been put forward by the family of the raped and murdered girl and the many groups and organizations that are protesting this brutal atrocity on the young Dalit woman.
1. Transfer the case to CBI or constitute an independent enquiry into this case.
2. Proper investigation and immediate arrests of culprits.
3. Invoke the relevant sections of SC/ST PoA Act on the accused, including Section 4 of the Act on the negligent officials.
4. Immediate legal aid and support be given to the family.
5. Remove the false cases on the protesters and immediate release of the four boys who have been arrested.
6. Take action against the police who beat up the protesters and the official who kicked the body of the raped and murdered victim.
7. Constitute a special enquiry team to prepare a report on the status of all the rape cases that have been reported in Haryana in the past one year. This process should include collaboration with Dalit and women rights activists.
8. Minister - Social Justice and Empowerment, Ms. Selja Kumari, should call for a Round Table discussion with all the concerned officials from Haryana and review the situation.
9. All the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRC, NCW, NCSC) should have a joint meeting to discuss the recent crimes against Dalit women in Haryana and release a plan of action to address these issues.

Asha Kowtal: All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch

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