MAN CAN’T BE CHARGED WITH RAPE ON GROUNDS OF DEEP LOVE AFFAIR: HC

: The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court has acquitted a 27-yearold man of rape charges on the grounds that there was a “deep love affair” between him and the complainant. The high court was hearing a petition filed by Yogesh Palkar who had challenged his conviction by a lower court. The lower court had sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000, after pronouncing him guilty under Indian Penal Code section 376 (rape). The high court judge, Justice CV Bhadang, in his order on February 17, 2018, acquitted Palkar in the case. A 25-year-old woman had alleged that Palkar, who worked as a chef in an offshore casino, had sexual intercourse with her for the first time in November 2013 at his residence at Bambolim near Panaji, after promising to marry her. They had intercourse several times after that till December 2013, she had said in her police complaint. But, in February 2014 he started ignoring her and went back on his promise of marriage as she belonged to a lower caste, the woman charged. A special court in Panaji then convicted the man on March 31, 2015. However, during the trial, the woman also filed an affidavit before the special court saying she could not see Palkar behind bars who was then suffering from depression and undergoing treatment for it.

The violence that followed Dalits’ Bharat Bandh — to protest the alleged dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act through a Supreme Court order — in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior was predominantly a clash between “the lathis of the Dalits and the guns of the upper castes”, according to police officers who were present at the time.

The nationwide protest,and the clashes, ended with 11 people losing their lives (eight in Madhya Pradesh, two in Uttar Pradesh and one in Rajasthan). Of the 11 people killed, at least six are Dalits, five of whom died of gunshot wounds, police have confirmed.

With an unstated “gun culture” widespread in the GwaliorChambal region, which has a history of people turning ‘Baaghis’ (rebels) and taking to the ravines, owing a gun invariably becomes a matter of “status symbol”. “It is considered manly to wield a gun and there is respect in society for people who own guns,” retired superintendent of police Chetram Singh, now a social activist, said.

Gwalior superintendent of police Ashish said the “gun culture” is more prevalent in this region than anywhere else in the state.

“The large number of guns, both licensed and illegal, had a major role in the deaths during the violence. We have asked everyone to submit all their guns to the nearest police stations.”

Police had on Tuesday booked one Raja Singh Chauhan, a resident of Thatipur locality in Gwalior, after photographs of him firing shots at the protesters surfaced on social media. As of Wednesday, when the police said it had arrested 226 people across the state, Chauhan was yet to be arrested.

At the other end of this gun toting upper castes were Dalits wielding lathis — of a “similar make and size”.

“Most of the Dalit protesters were armed with lathis. What is surprising is the similarity in the make and size of these lathis. It appears that these had been purchased in bulk from the recently held month-long Gwalior mela. These lathis are manufactured in Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh). We are investigating whether these lathis were distributed by someone before the violence to arm the agitated groups,” inspector Ravindra Singh of the Thatipur police station said.

“The lathi is our symbol so we carry it. The violence was caused by the upper-caste members who infiltrated our groups and damaged properties to give us a bad name,” Ratan Buddha, a Dalit leader, said.

Meanwhile, the Gwalior police investigating the deaths of two people in Thatipur have booked Bobby Tomar, 22, under section 302 (murder) of the IPC in its FIR registered following a complaint filed by one Pradeep Jatav.

According to the FIR, Tomar is accused of firing at the protesters and shooting dead Deepak Jatav and Rakesh Jatav.

PANAJI GWALIOR: GWALIOR SP SAID THE ‘GUN CULTURE’ IS MORE PREVALENT IN GWALIORCHAMBAL REGION THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN MADHYA PRADESH