Lalitha(21) d/o Chunilal (56), resident of Talete Village, Dist- Sirohi, Rajasthan, hails from a Scheduled Caste family. Her father is a retired army personal. After his retirement he started to work in a hotel at Mount Abu. Lalita had 2 sisters and a brother. Her brother who had worked in a hotel was lost four years ago. FIR was registered in this connection but no action was taken by the police. After this incident, Lalitha and her family members shifted their residence from Mount Abu to Taleta. Lalitha worked at Shantivan in Taleta. She used to carry a uniform along with her. During her duty hour she used to wear the uniform.

On 28/01/07 morning, Lalitha, as usual, went for work.  At about 7.00 P.m Gopal came to the house of Lalitha and asked her parents whether she reached home. The parents of Lalitha said that she has not come.  He informed them that she was missing from the factory from 10.30 a.m. The members of her family started to search for her and also complained to the police. The police started to search and finally reached the dam, where the dirty water stagnated at the backside of Shantivan. They found Lalitha’s slipper floating in the water. Since it became dark they could not search further.

Again on 29/01/07, Assistant In charge of Police and a police man started to search for her in the dam.  They had put an anchor in the water and also made a person to dive in the water, but they could not find anything. The police brought 4 pump sets and started to drain all the water from the dam. At about 12 p.m the water was completely drained out from the dam but nothing was found. Since the family members of Lalitha were tired they returned home. After they reached home the police went to the house of Chunilal and brought them back near the dam and showed the dead body of Lalitha clad in ununiform. The parents were shocked to see the dead body of Lalitha with bleeding in her nose, injuries on her face and the body did not swell, it  was normal. When the sister of Lalitha wanted to see the Duty In charge the employee said that he was sick and did not allow her to meet him.

The Parents of the Lalitha suspects that she should have been raped and later murdered by the employee of Shantivan. On 30/01/07, Post- Mortem was conducted by 3 doctors and certified that the death was due to drowning. The Perpetrator has not been identified. FIR has not been filed and the Police want to squash this case by saying that she must have committed suicide. 

Case in Brief                        

Ajjarapu Nagamani, age 22, Caste SC, married Mr.Mohan, 25 years, R/o Kovvuru, EG was married on 9-12-2000. The victim gave a dowry of 30,000/- and they used to stay in Hyderabad as the accused was working in Hyderabad. They had a son after 1 year of their marriage. As the days passed by, the victim went to her parent’s house but the accused did not take her back to Hyderabad. When the marriage elders met him in Hyderabad, he informed them that he will live with her if she brings an additional dowry of Rs 30,000/-. He used to come to her at weekends. As days passed by, he got intimacy with other women in Hyderabad and stopped going to his wife.  Ms.Nagamani is a House Wife and was not in a position to even feed her son. One day when Mr.Mohan was beating Nagamani, his brother Mr.Bulli Reddy joined him and beat her and she had severe bleeding.  She lodged a complaint against Mr.Mohan and Mr.Bulli Reddy with the intervention of DSS. But the FIR was not registered. Ms.Seshu, Divisional Organiser of DSS met The District Collector and gave a written complaint that the case was not registered. The Collector Mr.Subramanyam immediately responded and given instructions to the Police Station over phone. Then the FIR was registered under Domestic Violence Act.

DSS Intervention 

• Complaint given but FIR not registered initially
• Pressurized the police through the SP and collector and got the FIR registered under Domestic Violence Act
• Pressurized the police and got the accused arrested.

Keshuram Meghwal(45) S/o Shri Narayan, resident of Parvatisar Village, Dist- Churu, Rajasthan, hails from a Scheduled Caste Meghwal family. Seven years ago, Rajpal Singh Rajput brother of Madan Singh Rajput borrowed Rs.700 from Keshuram Meghwal. Rajpal did not refund the money and also denied that he had not borrowed the money from Keshuram, which led to quarrel between Keshuram and Madan Singh. The four brothers Madan Singh, Rajpal Singh, Lakshman Singh and Bharu Singh seized the Camel cart from Keshuram. Keshuram complained about this to the police and they settled the problem between them.

On 17/01/07, Keshuram did not return home till 10. 00 p.m. Ummidevi mother of Keshuram sent Bhudaram brother of Keshuram to look for him. When Bhudaram reached near the shop of Babulal Meghwal, he saw Madan singh S/o Hanuman singh was attacking Keshuram with an axe on Keshuram’s back of the neck. Bhudaram rushed to the spot with alarm. By seeing Bhudaram, Madan Singh immediately left the spot. Blood was bleeding from his neck and he died. Manoj S/o Rugharam, Bhudharam were the eye witnesses of the incident. People gathered immediately and they informed the police but the police did not come to the spot immediately. They again contacted the police over phone and the police reached the spot at 4.00 a.m in the early morning.  Police took the body to Sarsal hospital and post mortem was carried out by Dr.Sharma. The police registered the FIR u/s 302 IPC and 3(2) (v) SC/ST (POA) Act, 1989.

On 8/02/07 at 7.30 a.m Lakshman Singh brother of Madan Singh came to the house of Bhudaram with an axe, abused him and his wife and attempted to attack them. On the same day Bhudaram registered an FIR against Lakshman Singh U/S 448, 323, 354 IPC and 3(1)(x) & 3(1)(xi)Sc/St (POA) Act 1989 at Salasar Police Station.

Charge sheet in the first case has been filed on 13/02/07. Compensation of Rs. 75, 000/- was paid to the victim as per SC/ST (PoA) RULES1995. Accused was arrested and languishing in jail. Trial of the Case is pending disposal. Investigation conducted by DSPMr. Abhay Singh Charan 

Digambar Kamble is resident of Varvada village, Tal-Ausa in Latur Dist., belongs to scheduled caste community. During the Gram Panchayat Election, Digambar Kamble a member from Bouddha Sajam stood as contestant against a member from dominant caste. On 9/10/07, the Election result was declared and Digambar became the winner. The loss in election, made dominant caste people humiliated and provoked them to take revenge on Dalits.  Thus on 17/01/2007, the dominant caste people, abused Digambar by his caste name and threatened him to kill.   

Digambar Kamble lodged complaint in Ausa police station but the police did not register case rather insisted to compromise.