Kin lynch Dalit woman, khap imposes ₹2,500 fine

A motley group of people sit as silent spectators, shooting furtive glances at strangers who enter the Regar mohalla, a settlement of 200 Dalit families in Ajmer district of Rajasthan.

Occasionally, they gaze at the serpentine lane in front of them, the place where a 40-year-old mother of two was stripped naked and paraded after being branded as a witch on the night of August 2. She was also fed human excreta and dirty water from nearby drains, said her family.

Kanya Devi died the next day in her village Kadera, her body bearing signs of torture that she went through, including burnt charcoal thrust in her hands and eyes.

“We haven’t seen anything. We sleep early after coming back from work,” is all the neighbours say when asked about the incident.

The police action taken in the case reflects the numerous cons of a flawed system. The FIR was registered on Sunday against four people. The accused include two teenaged girls, an acquaintance, and a man who was the nephew of Devi’s husband.

A graffiti saying that Chitar Regar’s family is below poverty level is painted on the entrance of a house, even as two siblings mourn the loss of both their parents within a month.

“I was called on the morning of August 3 and after reaching Devi’s home, I found that she was grievously injured. Upon enquiring, the family of her husband’s elder brother told me she fell on the oven while preparing tea,” said Uttam Kumar Mirdha, a local compounder.

By the time news reached Maya Regar, Devi’s daughter, the victim had already died. What followed was a hurried funeral and a meeting of a khap panchayat, who ‘absolved’ the accused of their crimes by ‘fining them’.

“I saw injuries all over the body of my mother. Even her eyes were burnt and there were extensive burn injuries on her legs thighs and other parts of the body, “Maya told HT.

Radheshyam Regar, another relative told HT that no clear reason behind her death was given to them by the accused. At the time of HT’s visit, none of the accused

“You either go inside or take the place of your mother.” This is what a 15-year-old boy was told on August 2 when he tried to stop villagers, including a teenager female cousin and her friend, from assaulting his 40-year-old mother.

The villagers went on to assault the woman, parade her naked, fed her human excreta and thrust smouldering coal in her hands.

She died a day later. Her son, the eyewitness to the incident, is yet to recover from the shock. Barely a month ago, his father had died of illness.

It was just another evening until a cousin with one of her friends set off a sequence of events that led to his mother’s death. “The two started behaving strangely and claimed that a spirit has entered their body. In that state, they said that my mother was a witch,” the boy told HT.

What followed next was barbarism at its worst. One of the girls pulled at the were found at home.

“Both the girls who are accused in the incident were fined Rs. 2500 each and also asked to give a tractor full of fodder for cow, 5 tankers of water and one sack vegetable,” Rahul (name changed), the 15-year-old son of Devi, told HT.

Rahul was witness to the entire act of his mother being assaulted but couldn’t do anything after being threatened. Two of his cousins are the accused in the case. “The khap panchayat decided that no police action will be taken in the matter after the fine was paid,” he said.

Upon learning about the incident, Mahadev Regar, a distant relative and a social worker, visited the family and decided to lodge a case.

“In spite of me giving the complaint to the police and communicating to them the matter, a case was not lodged,” Mahadev said. woman’s hair while the other started beating her up. “By this time, 8-10 people had assembled. Some of them brought human excreta from nearby fields. Most of the people in our settlement defecate in the open,” the youngster said.

The mob, he said, then forced his mother to eat the faeces and drink water taken out from nearby drains. “They didn’t pay any heed to my pleas to release her and stripped her naked. At this point, I went in as I couldn’t see my mother being paraded naked,” the teenager said.

“They thrust hot coal in her hands and also hurt her in other places. They kept calling my mother a witch and refused to listen to her calls for mercy,” he added.

After her death, the youngster was made to witness a farce played out by the local khap panchayat, which let off his mother’s killers with a token fine asking them to “wash off their sins” in Pushkar. HTC

Activists have slammed the administration for the delay in taking action as all the accused still walk free.

“This is a blatant example of how the administration is unwilling to take action in such a serious matter. A woman is paraded naked, tortured and killed but yet no one is arrested for the crime,” activist Tara Ahluwalia told HT.

The police said that in the FIR that was lodged on Sunday evening, four people including two teenaged girls, Mahaveer and Chandraprakash have been named accused.

“We have registered the case under section 302 (murder), section 201(causing disappearence of evidence) of IPC and different sections of the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-hunting Act,” sub inspector Shankar from the Kekri police station told HT.

The FIR has been lodged by Maya, said the police.