The victim Koppula Venkatamma (35) w/o Koppula Nageswara Rao (late) belongs to a Scheduled Caste, she resides in Kothapalli village, Cherla mandal Khammam district. She has two sons and a daughter. She makes her livelihood by cultivating two acres of land. She used to sell country made liquor and had developed illegal intimacy with the first accused Guntupalli Ganapathi s/o Peda Laxmaiah who is the resident of same village and belongs to Vadrangi caste. When her husband came to know about the relationship, he committed suicide. This happened before 9 years. She continued her relationship with the accused and some differences rose between them when the accused developed contacts with a lady called Sujatha of the same village. The accused took Rs.20,000/- from the victim and did not repay. The victim started demanding money from the accused and also asked for some land to cultivate. The accused wanted to do away with her life and called her to the field with the assistance of the second accused. When she came to the field and asked for her money, the accused got wildly beat her. They put a towel around her neck and killed her. The accused took the dead body to the abandoned building of Gottimukkala Seetharamaraju and covered it with stones, after and they fled away.

Veeti Seethaiah who is the father of the victim found his daughter died on 11.2.2005 and suspected that some unknown persons killed his daughter six days ago. A case was filed in the Charla police station in Crime no. 14 of 2005 u/s 302, 34 r/w 201 IPC. The police in the course of investigation visited the scene of offence and took the statements of the witnesses. The medical officer conducted post mortem and opined that the death is due to hanging. Both the accused were arrested and were presented in the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Khammam.

The Court said that the witnesses turned hostile and the evidence of the prosecution witnesses is of no help to establish any suspicious circumstances against the accused. As a result the Accused no.1 is found not guilty for the offence u/s 302 IPC r/w 34 IPC and Accused no.1 & 2 are found not guilty for the offence u/s 201 IPC beyond all reasonable doubt and they were acquitted u/s 235 (1) CrPC. The case was not filed under SC/ST (POA) Act and Accused no. 1 and 2 are found not guilty of the offences u/s 302 IPC, 201 IPC beyond all reasonable doubt. They were acquitted u/s 235 (1) CrPC by the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Khammam.

In the villages Rampur in Jamhaur Ps., Hajarikarma in Mufsil Ps. and Pawai Azarkave in Mufsil Ps., which come under Aurangabad district of Bihar, there was a legislative Assembly on February 3rd, 2005. The booths held the nos. 106, 124 and 131 consecutively. Dalits of these villages were debarred from casting their votes. In these villages non-Dalits dominate over the Dalits in the political as well as the economic scenario. The Dalits earn their livelihood by working as daily wage laborers in the fields of the non-Dalits.

The booth no. 106 was situated in the Primary School of Rampur village. It so happened that when the Dalits went to cast their votes and were standing in queues waiting for their chance, at 12 pm Subodh Singh and Vimlesh Singh, sons of the late Sahdev Singh, upper caste, entered the polling room where 5 voting machines were kept and started pressing the buttons of their favorite party. At this Buddheshwar Ram, 62, Chamar(SC) by caste and a retired headmaster of a Primary school tried to stop them. For this they were beaten and threatened with pistols. The perpetrators used vulgar words (mother fucker, Sala-brother in law, etc.) to them. Then the Dalits headed by Buddheshwar Ram went to the office of SHO where they met Rakesh Rathi,DSP. He threatened them and chased them away. On February 13, 2005 he came to the village for the inquiry of the case and again threatened them saying not to complain about the election and asked them to say that they had exercised their franchise peacefully.

The next day the Dalits went to the DM and Election Commission and complained about the whole situation. The FIR no.61/05 was lodged under the sections 341, 323, 337, 34,135 IPC and SC/ST POA 1989 section 3(10) against Bimlesh Singh and Subodh Singh. On the same day two similar incidents took place in different villages. There, Faodari Ram, 50, from Hazarikarma village and Ramnaresh Ram of Pawai Azarkawe village belonging to the Chamar (SC) caste were beaten up by different perpetrators. And the FIR nos. 57/05 with sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 324 IPC and SC/ST POA 3(1) vii against Jagan Yadav, Ramraj Yadav, Gupta Yadav, Lakhan Yadav, Rajaram Yadav and Munarik Yadav  and 64/05 with sections 147, 148, 149, 307, 323, 499, 504 IPC and SC/ST POA 3(1) vi & x against Subodh, Arwind, Sanjay Singh, Jaynadan Kumar Mishra, Bhola, Brajmohan, Vishnupath and Daroga Sao, were filed on 4/ 2/ 2005.

On 29/022005, the Dalits met the SP of Aurangabad and informed him that the accused were threatening them constantly of taking their lives. As a result the SP ordered the Police In-charge of the police station to arrest immediately.  The final report and the case Diary are being submitted in the court. The Cr. No. 61/05 is under investigation and the Cr. No. 57/05 is pending in the court.

On 29.1.2005 unidentified persons Gang Raped and murdered Dalit woman Gandham Shyamala of Yendrai (Village), Amaravathi(Mandal) , Guntur (Dist). Gandham Syamala (22 years) belongs to SC (Mala), w/o Rosaiah, aged 28 years R/o Yendraaji (Village), Amaravathi (Mandal), Guntur (Dist.). They have two children, G. Ashok Kumar (7) studying in III standard and G. Mamatha (6) in the Nursery. She runs a petty shop in Dalit colony and her husband goes for sand quarrying early morning and return home in the evening.

On 29.1.05 (Saturday) Rosaiah returned home in the evening, it was already dark and he took bath. After that his wife (Syamala) served food to him. She asked him if we could go for the prayer gathering at Amravathi as it is the last day of the prayer meeting. They usually don’t go for such prayers. Since she has some health problem they thought she might be cured of health problem. As she was expecting that some foreigners would pray for her healing. They are not in a position to go for the prayer because as Rosaiah is tired of his days work. But he took her to the bus stop at around 9.30PM on Saturday and returned home. Before he goes for work, he usually meets mutta mestry (leader of our workers group). On Sunday 30/01/2005 his mestry came to his house called him for work he got up and got ready and went for sand quarrying work at Muttayapalem. When he got up, he found his wife was not returned from prayer meeting. While he was leaving for work he told his brother, Gandham Lingaia (46) who has came from Nellore that Syamala has not come yet and asked him to take care.

Around 10.00 am one Police Constable of Amaravathi PS and Rama Babu (25) S/o Manohar of Yenraj village, went to his work place and informed him that his wife Syamala was hurt by an auto rickshaw. They asked him to come to the hospital and he went with them. But they took him to Amaravathi police station directly. After reaching PS they told him that some unidentified people raped his wife and her dead body was thrown in drainage, ½ km away from Amaravthi on Amaravathi- Vijayawada road. He felt terrible. The police took Rosaiah in the jeep to the place of occurrence where the body was lying. There some fifty to sixty people had gathered around. He was shocked to see her body in such a horrible condition. The hooks of the jacket were removed. There was no other piece of clothes on her body. Both the legs were bent upwards up to the shoulder. Rosaiah could not stay there for long. The body was seen 5 yards away from the road. There are no houses nearby. His relatives took the body and placed it in an auto rickshaw and took it to Amaravathi hospital. He was taken to Amaravath hospital in jeep. He was there till midnight and went to Fr.Balaji house. The police registered the case (6/05) as suspicious death.

Next day, Monday 31/01/2005, at around 6.30am he came to the hospital. At about 9.00AM Dara Prasad, Mandal Secretary of DBSU, T. Raghu, Fr. Balaji and he went to Guntur and met MLA, Prasad. The MLA opined that they should get the post mortem done at Guntur, the district headquarters and not at Amravathi fearing they may not get Justice done at Amaravathi because they suspected local perpetrators may influence. We then approached the Collector and requested that autopsy be done at Guntur. The Collector accepted their request and arranged the doctors to do autopsy. Fr. Balaji rang up to the Amravathi SI (Sub Inspector of the police) Ch. Chandramouli to bring the corpse to Guntur in an ambulance.

At around 3.00PM Monday 31/01/2005, the body was brought out after post mortem in Guntur. All the leaders who supported me came home in lorry with the body. The burial took place in our village cemetery.  Many people participate in the funeral and MLA, Prasad also attended the funeral. The Mandal Revenue Officer, G. Ravinder given Rs. 5000/- (five thousand only) to deceased son and said, “We will definitely do justice in this case. Rosaiah told that they shall send both your children (son and daughter) to Residential school. After few days when you are free, come to the Mandal Revenue Office and sign that you have received this Rs. 5000/-. Because of pressure from the Dalit organizations police did investigation and identified the accused and arrested. Sections were altered as 37. D.V.M Prasad, MLA of Thadikonda constitution also showed much interested in getting justice done. On Monday 31/01/2005 morning a group of people went and met the District Collector requesting his cooperation regarding the autopsy, the follow up of the case. The youth association, the women Sanghas and others were of the opinion that a rally be held at Armavathy on 3rd Feb 2005 to pressurize the official to peruse the case urgently and justify.  They believe the police are working hard to solve the problem. The MRO has also shown keen interest in following up the case.

Ravinder, Mandal Revenue Officer of Amravathy Mandal. MRO is much concerned about G. Syamala’s rape and murder case; he is putting his efforts to trace out the culprits. He is earnestly following up the case. (When asked why 174 Cr.PC only booked though it is evident that rape and murder has taken place) we are definitely going to change the section. We may have to wait for a couple of days at the most get a clear picture of the perpetrators. Then we can book the case under proper section. (When asked for relief for the victim’s family. once we get the culprits booked and proper section is applied, we could able to calculate the exact amount the victim’s family is to be given. The case is pending in Special Court, victim’s family members got 1^st phase compensation.