Case in Brief:

In Vadlamuru village, Peddapuram mandal, East Godavari district, the population of OC community is 500, BC 560, SC 450.  As the population of the OC and BC community is more, they play a dominating role in the village.  OC community argued with the SCs in the previous Sarpanch elections saying why do SCs need power?  As there are no proper educational facilities in the village, only people who can afford are sending their children to nearby villages for education.  Children of economically backward communities are working as labors.  There are no proper medical facilities in the village.  The upper caste communities dominate the SCs in political and cultural matters.

Brief details of the case:

Ananta Lakshmi, aged 19 years, d/o Abbulu, r/o Vadlamuru village, Peddapuram mandal, East Godavari district has completed ANM Training and is working in Srinivas Nursing Home in Peddapuram.  She used to return by 06:00 pm everyday.  On the day of incident, i.e., on 20^th April 2006, as she had an emergency case, her younger brother has come by cycle and sent her in auto and said that he would follow on cycle.  On the way, the auto driver took her in other way and increased the volume of the songs.  He pulled her out of the auto and tried to rape her.  She tried to escape from him and he tortured her.  She somehow managed to escape from him and went to her house by another auto.  Back in her home she informed her parents about the incident.  They went to the accused house with their caste elders and asked for an explanation.  The family of the accused abused them in the name of the caste, quarreled with them and filed a case on them.  Then the victim’s family filed a case on the accused.  Though the police arrested the accused, he immediately took a bail and is moving freely in the village now.

Findings:

•      Attempt to rape is committed according to the statements I, II and III.
•      Attempt to rape is committed according to the doctor’s certificate.
•      According to statement II and IV, it is clear that there is domination of the so-called higher castes on dalits in the village.
•      It is clear that the government officials are in favor of the accused according to the statement of DSP and FIR.
•      The girl is not secure as the accused has come out immediately on bail.
•      His statement of the accused with the victim that he wanted to rape her with his friends is not entered in the FIR.  This shows that her right to expression under Article 19 of the constitution and hence right to life under Article 21 of the constitution are violated.
•      7.3 National Women’s Commission is violated according to the National Human Rights Declaration to eradicate the atrocities on women.
•      Article 7 of CEDAW is violated according to the statement IV

Recommendations:

1.    Case should be registered u/s 3(1) (XII) of SC/ST (PoA) Act.  
2.    Rs. 50,000/- should be paid as compensation by the government to the victim
3.    Accused is freely roaming in the village.  Hence, police protection should be provided to the victim Anantalakshmi.
4.    According to National Human Rights Agreement, special investigation should be done to eradicate atrocities on women and 7.3 should be recommended by the Women’s commission.
5.    According to the statement given by the Sarpanch, to curtail all kinds of atrocities on women, government should immediately follow Article 2 of CEDAW.

Fodiram s/o Buddha Ram ( 75 ), Shyamo w/o Fodiram (70), Ramesh Chand s/o, Fodiram (40), Raja Beti w/o,  Ramesh Chand (38), Jggannath s/o Fodiram (35) Leela w/o Jggannath 32, Pappu  S/o, Fodiram (30), Meena w/o Pappu (28), Raju s/o Fodiram (26) Sharda w/o Raju (25) Shishu Pal s/o, Fodiram (24) Urmila w/o Shishu Pal (22) all Koli (SC) by caste   hail from a hamlet Pipron, Tehsil Basedi,  in Dhaulpur  District belonging to Koli  sub caste (SC). The Dalits of Pipron Village constituting around 1300 families as against approximately 250 SC families are all landless. Some are daily wage labourers and some involve themselves in as daily wage labourers near by places. 

One of the accused Ram Avtar, Thakur by Caste, Residence of Village Pipron stole one Buffalo belonging to Gurjars community. He asked Raju s/o Fodiram to sell the Buffallo in Local Market. (Raju was not aware of that Ram Avtar has stolen the Buffalo). Accordingly, Raju and Ramavtar took the buffalo to a nearby market to sell the same .In the meantime it was revealed that the buffalo was the stolen one. Raju and Ram avtar decided to take the buffalo back to village. On their way back Ram Avtar sold the Buffalo for Rs. 14,000/- and took all the money.

In the meantime, Gurjar Community searched for their Buffalo. Fortunately, they came to know from some reliable source that their Buffalo has been stolen by Ram Avtar and been sold. On hearing the news, they called for a Panchayat meeting. Panchayat fined Rs. 7000/- on each of them. Ramavtar did not pay the fined amount. Somehow Raju,s family arranged the amount and paid the same. Ram Avtar kept pressurizing Fodiram to pay the rest of the amount too. On 15.02.06 Ramavtar came to Fodiram’s house and threatened them with a gun point that he would kill them if they would not pay his fined amount. On 05.04.06, Ram Avtar took revenged by cutting the nose of Fodiram with a sharp edged weapon while he was returning back to his home from Kela Devi.

The victim was admitted in Hospital in Delhi. No expenses have been met by the administration. The case is registered on 05.04.06, u/s 326, 323, 348, 34 IPC & 3(1)(x) , 3(2)(v) of SC/ST (PoA) Act. Till now no compensation has been paid. The case is still pending. There is no effort from the police officials to arrest the accused.

The Investigation officer has arrested one of the accused Hem Singh and the other accused Ramavatar is still absconding. There is no effort from the police officials to arrest the accused. The administration has given no compensation to the victim. No medical aid has been granted by the administration. The accused are threatening him continuously. The perpetrator has been scot-free. The victim is living in fear.

Case in Brief:

Socio-Economic and Political back ground:

Voleti Narayana S/o Kotayya aged 50 years belonging to Mala community has migrated over to Hyderabad from Peddakolakunta village, Kondepi Mandal of Prakasam District. He is a daily laborer.

 Background and Summary of the Case:

Voleti Santoshi D/o Narayana aged 14 yrs, resident of Plot No – 162/A of Saipuram Colony. Adi Lakshmi w/o of Narayana and mother of victim has been working as servant maid in the house of Lalitha Devi, a real estate business woman for the past 3 months. Santoshi also joined as servantmaid in the same house last 15 days ago at the insistence of Lalitha Devi. On 21/03/06 in the morning around 9 a.m. Lalitha Devi called the father of Santoshi and said that Santoshi has stolen amount from her purse, when Narayana asked his daughter, she said that she found Rs 200/-, which she handed over to Srinivasa Rao H/o Lalitha Devi.

Lalitha Devi didn’t agree to it and beat Santoshi with a stick for about an hour infront of her father. Then Lalitha Devi called her workers Srinu(masion), Venkateswarulu(supervisor) ant other person, they all beat her up with sticks. Around 4 p.m. they bought a blade and forced Narayana to shave the head of his daughter. Latter they also forced Narayana to put chilly powder into her eyes and even gave her electric shock. Lalitha Devi took signatures of Narayana on blank paper.

Narayana and his daughter Santoshi were freed around 8 p.m., when the nearby people interfered. But Lalitha Devi warned Narayana of dire consequences if they revealed the matter to anyone.

Narayana lodged a complaint on 22/03/06 at Kushaiguda Police Station and the case was registered U/s 3(i)(ix) of SC/ST(POA)Act and Sec 324, 355, 385 of IPC and 14 of CLA.

 Present Stage of Case:

The accused has been arrested and the investigation is being done by the ACP. The Joint-Collector, RDO and MRO have also visited the scene of offence.

Harchundram (65), Darshanram (30), Jhimo Devi (60), Ramesh (7), Kailash (5) and Devpal (3) and other belonging to Scheduled Caste (Meghwal) community are r/o Vill/P.S. Pokaran in Jaisalmer Dist. A dalit family members and neighboring Dalits were attacked on the eve of Holi on 14.3.2006. The reason behind the attack is stated to be the assertiveness and a little challenging approach to oppose the dominant caste persons belonging to Rajput community of the village, against the practice of untouchability, discrimination and dominancy attitude toward Dalits.  

Exhibiting their dominance, the accused Shaitan Singh, belonging to Rajput community entered the house of Harchand and tried to molest the women and verbally abused them. Darshanram Meghwal together with the family members caught hold of the accused and tied him with rope on 18/02/ 06. This engraved enmity among the Rajput community against Dalits. On 14.3.2006 the Rajputs attacked Dalit families with Axe, sticks, and molested the women members. Many Dalits were severely injured. The case is registered in Pokaran police station on 14 March, 2006, No -43/06 u/s 143, 323, 452 IPC and 3(1)(x) & 3 (1)(xi) of SC/ST (PoA) Act 1989. No accused are arrested so far.

Charge sheet filed in the case on 29.04.06. Case is investigated by the DSP.  Accused arrested and bailed out. Total Compensation of Rs.6250/- paid to the family under SC/ST (PoA) RULES 1995.