Caste Violence: Two Dalit Children Burnt Alive in Faridabad Revenge Killing
Upper caste Rajputs allegedly set fire to the home of a Dalit family in Sunpedh, a village in Faridabad near Delhi, in the early hours of Tuesday, killing both the sleeping children inside aged 2 years and 9 months while their parents have suffered severe burn injuries.
Police said the attack was an act of revenge that was born out of a year long tussle over a mobile phone.
Vaibhav, 3, and his nine-month-old sister Divya were brought to Safdarjung Hospital around 3 am with 60-70 per cent thermal burns. Both were declared dead. Their mother Rekha, 23, is critical.
Their father Jitender suffered burn injuries on his palms, he has been discharged.
“The attackers were Rajputs and they had a confrontation with Dalits over a murder in October last year. They barged into our home when we were sleeping and they poured petrol from the window after locking our door from the outside. I could smell petrol and tried to wake up my wife, but by then the fire had started. My children died in the fire,” Jitender told The Indian Express.
Following tension in the village, all shops were closed and heavy police force was deployed in the area.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ballabgarh, Bhupinder Singh said that the situation in the area was tense but under control.
In Chandigarh, a state government spokesman said that three accused - Balwant, Dharam Singh and Kartar of Ballabgarh - have been arrested.
He said that four policemen, who were among the seven police personnel deployed with the victim family for security, have been suspended.
"Constables Bali Mohammed, Vikas and Sandeep have been placed under suspension for dereliction of duties because they failed to protect the victims as they were deployed for the security of victim's family.
"Inspector Anil Kumar, officer-in-charge of police station Sadar Ballagbarh, has been placed under suspension for dereliction of duties,” the spokesman said.
The Haryana government has announced financial assistance of Rs.10 lakh to the family.
Police said that an incident that took place on October 5, 2014, when three people were killed in clashes between two groups of the village, may have led to Tuesday's arson.
Nineteen people were booked for the triple murder including three members of Jitender's family after the 2014 violence.
Police have detained four people -- Balwant, Kartar, Guddu and another relative -- over the incident. All four belong to the influential Balu Rajput camp in Sunped village in Faridabad district.
The Sunpedh village near Ballabgarh is home to around 5,000 people who are a mix of high-caste Rajputs or Thakurs and the Dalits. While there are 300 Rajput or Thakur families, 100 houses belong to Dalits.
According to villagers and senior police officers, a bitter rivalry has been on for almost three decades between the Rajput Balu family and the Dalit Lalji camp.
The Balu camp comprises rich landlords (farmers) of Sunped village while the Lalji camp members are mostly in government service, including in telecom sector and armed forces -- a few of the latter are also in law and medical professions, said an elderly villager adding that the fight betwen them is one of one-upmanship.
"We do not have any problem with the rest of the villagers," Jitender's cousin Surender told IANS, adding that only the Balu camp doesn't want to see them in the village.
He said Jitender, who runs a clinic in Ballabgarh, had returned to the village around six months back after leaving the village with his family following an October 5, 2014 clash in which three people from the Balu camp were killed.
The National Campaign Against Torture (NCAT) in its “India: Annual Report on Torture 2019” released on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture stated that a total of 1,731 persons died in custody during 2019 i.e. deaths of about five persons daily. These included 1,606 deaths in judicial custody and 125 deaths in police custody.
Torture is perpetrated to extract confession or bribes and torture methods used in 2019 included hammering iron nails in the body (Bihar), applying roller on legs and burning (Jammu & Kashmir), ‘falanga’ wherein the soles of the feet are beaten (Kerala), stretching legs apart in opposite side (Kerala), hitting in private parts (Haryana), electric shock (Punjab and Uttar Pradesh), pouring petrol in private parts (Uttar Pradesh), applying chilly power in private parts (Kerala) beating while being hand-cuffed (Kerala), pricking needle into body (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), branding with hot iron rod (3-Year-old minor in Tamil Nadu), beating after stripping (Haryana and Assam), urinating in mouth (Uttar Pradesh), inserting hard blunt object into anus (Bihar), beating after hanging upside down with hands and legs tied (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh), forcing to perform oral sex (Gujarat), pressing finger nails with pliers (Assam), beating with iron rods after victim is suspended between two tables with both hands and legs tied (Madhya Pradesh), forced to do Murga pose or stress position (Haryana), and kicking in belly of pregnant woman (Assam).
Indian police officers in the town of Nagina chased a group of Muslim teenagers into an empty house. They grabbed them and took them to a makeshift jail. And then, the boys and community leaders said, the officers tortured them.
Four of the boys, who ranged in age from 13 to 17, said that police officers used wooden canes to beat them and threatened to kill them.
Indian Police officers over the course of 30 hours terrorized them.
According to two of the boys, the officers laughed during beatings, saying, “You will die in this prison.”
More accounts are emerging of abuse meted out by police officers.
Almost all the violence has been directed toward Muslim residents. More people — at least 19 — have been killed!
Witnesses said that police officers opened fire on demonstrators with live ammunition, broke into houses and stole money, and threatened to rape women.
Police officers were encouraged by their superiors to kill protesters.
The Indian police have become a lynch mob! Inidan police officers having been given the green light by senior officials to use harsh measures against Muslims.
A 20-year-old Dalit man was allegedly burnt alive over his relationship with a woman from another caste, the killing causing his mother to die of shock.
The victim was beaten up, kept hostage in a house and set ablaze.
Locals rushed to the spot on hearing his cries and took him to a local hospital. He was referred to a Lucknow hospital but succumbed to injuries on the way.
India : Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Telangana2018-09-20
A father attacked his 20-year-old daughter and her newlywed husband in the heart of the city on Wednesday, chopping off her left forearm and slashing her jaw. The incident comes days after a Dalit youth was mercilessly murdered in front his pregnant wife in Nalgonda district.
Police said the father was upset over the inter-caste marriage — the woman an OBC (Other Backward Class), her husband, B Sandeep (22), a Dalit. Sandeep and Madhavi Chary, in a relationship for five years, secretly got married on September 12, despite stiff opposition from her father.
Madhavi was left with a 12-inch gash on her neck and jawline and her left forearm barely hung by the skin. She was in a 10-hour surgery at the time of going to print. Sandeep, in another hospital, received 10 stitches to close the deep wound at the angle of his mouth; the attending doctors said he was in deep shock.
