In an Indian village, a woman's killing and alleged rape opens caste divides by zebatweets Saurabh Sharma
HINDU NAGAR, India - When the young woman limped toward shopkeeper Ravindra Prakash, pleading for help on a dark and foggy morning in the northern Indian village, her body was so charred that he thought she was a witch. He grabbed a wooden stick and tried to shoo her away.
That morning of Dec. 5, the woman had set out early to catch a train that was due to depart around 5 am to meet her lawyer to pursue her rape case, according to her statement in a police report. After she was burnt, the government ordered her moved to a hospital in New Delhi, where she succumbed to her injuries late on Dec. 6.
Reuters is withholding the name of the woman and her family members because India’s Supreme Court bars revealing the identity of sexual assault victims, including through their families. In another attack this month, a 27-year-old veterinarian was raped and murdered near the southern city of Hyderabad. Police shot dead four men who had been arrested for the attack, claiming that they had tried to escape.Often victims and their families go up against powerful people and harsh caste dynamics, especially in rural India, where two thirds of the country live.
Dozens of women and young girls from the family of the accused men marched on a dirt road in the village on Saturday shouting slogans refuting the allegations against them. They said the men were innocent and asleep at home that morning of the alleged murder. “The policemen have been suspended for dereliction of duty. A special investigation team has been formed on my recommendation, and we are probing the case.”Most lower-caste women do not study past high school in Hindu Nagar, and many are married by their teens, villagers said. The victim was among the few who had graduated. She applied to become a policewoman but missed the interview last year as the public bus she took had been late, her father said.
It was in Dec. 2018 that she first went to the police to file a complaint saying that Shivam Trivedi and Shubham Trivedi had misled her into accompanying them to the fields and raping her at gunpoint on Dec. 12. She got home and told her aunt and the local police the same day, according to her complaint.
“Because of police inaction, the family of the accused are emboldened and are harassing my family and threatening me to force me to withdraw my case.”
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