On January 5, 2020, the body of Kajal, a 19-year old Dalit woman was found hanging from a banyan tree in the Saira village in Modasa, Gujarat. She had been missing for four days before that.
Her sister reported that she had been abducted by four men from the Bharvad family- Bimal, Darshan, Jigar, and Satish. She alleged that after abducting her, the four men had gangraped and then hanged her. Her sister, who was with her on January 1, had witnessed her being taken in a car by the four men she named. The four men had asked her to keep quiet about it. This was later corroborated by CCTV footage from a building in the area. All of the four men belonged to the Rabari caste, which has historically been associated with pastoral occupations. The Rabari caste is classified as OBC (Other Backward Class) in the region and although the caste is socially and economically backward, this particular family owned land and commanded political influence. The victim was from the Chamar caste, a Scheduled Caste traditionally associated with occupations considered ‘impure’ by Hinduism such as tanning and leatherwork, and against whom untouchability is still practised by upper-caste Hindus.
When Kajal first went missing, her family went to the police station to file a report, but were faced by inaction from the authorities. N.K. Rabari, an inspector who belonged to the same caste as the rapists, reportedly refused to file a complaint. He said that he had knowledge of her whereabouts, and lied to the family saying she had eloped to marry a man from their own caste. He even said he would soon produce her to them with her marriage certificate, proving that she had not gone missing but had eloped to get married.
The family’s instinctive fear and distress was natural seeing as they were one of only four Dalit families in the village, surrounded and outnumbered by powerful castes. The police’s victim-blame was directed at both the victim and her family. They dismissed the family’s fears and experience, rendering the caste oppression they have faced in the village, invisible. Not only did the police lie to the family, they also intentionally picked the kind of lie that would put blame on the victim and the men of their own caste.
Later, the police misinterpreted and ignored crucial pieces of evidence which suggested assault and rape, as well as her sister’s testimony, instead claiming that the victim had committed suicide. For instance, the body was found to be hanging from a tree at a height of around 20 feet, while according to the post-mortem, she was 152 centimetres tall and petite, and would be unlikely to scale that height. Two post mortems were conducted. The first report mentioned injuries to her neck, as well as part of the rectum being prolapsed from the anal canal. This information was not taken into consideration in the police’s interpretation of the report. The second post mortem reported that she was sodomized repeatedly, and injuries to her neck, forearm, upper chest towards the left side, and left arm, which the report suggests could have been sustained during a struggle or while being dragged on a hard surface. All of this information was not taken into consideration, and instead due to the absence of foreign particles of saliva and semen, the police ruled out sexual assault and the Special Investigation Team constituted to investigate this case said that the victim was in a romantic relationship with Bimal Bharvad, and committed suicide after he refused to commit to a stable relationship with her. Bimal Bharvad was charged mainly for abetment to suicide, while the other three accused were found to have no role.
The investigative authorities in this case exploited the fact that the victim was no longer alive to give her own testimony, to blame her for the violence she faced, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
Source - https://www.thequint.com/news/india/gujarat-modasa-dalit-girl-rape-murder-family-alleges-police-casteism-ground-report
