Sarita Devi (28) w/o Chandrabhushan Paswan having two children runs an “Anganwadi Kendra” a government project in her house at Bermo under Tharthari police station in the district of Nalanda, Bihar. The Tharthari police station is dominated by Kurmi and Bermo is populated with 100 Kurmi, 10 Dusadh, 10 Chamar, 10 Nai, 3 potters, 2 Pasi, 4 Carpenters and 1 Teli households. It is clear that persons belonging to Kurmi community dominate the other communities in all aspects of their lives. In this situation the victim Chandrabhushan Paswan had already made a successful effort in bringing certain developmental schemes in the village which did not appeal to the dominant community.

Hence the upper caste men of the village and block officials in connivance with the SHO Subhash Kumar of Tharthari and the SHO Gopal Singh of Chandi police stations under Nalanda district had fabricated the cases of theft, kidnapping, murder, etc. against Chandrabhushan Paswan (39) s/o late Saryug Paswan. Thus the police had come to arrest him in his house at Bermo on 12.7.2005 who did not find Chandrabhushan Paswan in the house and the police illegally detained his wife Sarita Devi (28) for 2 days in the police custody at Tharthari. Later she was taken to the Chandi police station where she was kept in the lock up for 8 days.

Sarita Devi was eloquently not only kept in the lock up but also physically and mentally tortured in the police stations. She was demanded for the ransom of Rs 10000 for her release. When she negated that for no reasons her relatives were taken under custody for two days and were released only after getting Rs 3000 from them on 20.7.2005. Sarita Devi too was released on the same day.

Poni Devi is the resident of village Berdi is an Adivasi prone area with Garasia community. At the day of incident on 12 July, 05, Poni Devi and her Mother-in law Dharmi Devi were alone at home and her husband was out of station. As per routine she was sleeping with her mother-in law. In the midnight the accused namely Mohan, Kesa Ram, Rana Ram, Ransa Ram and Dhula Ram mutely entered the home, caught Poni Devi and vehemently took her to some deserted area. They clutched Poni’s mouth and threatened her to kill. Poni Devi requested them to let her go. She shouted for help and cried a lot but accused did not leave her and subsequently raped her one by one beyond her crying and requests.

This inhumane incident injured Poni Devi badly; she lost her consciousness & got grievous injuries in her private parts. When Poni’s mother-in law Dharmi Devi after getting up did not find Poni there, she searched for her and arrived to the place of incidence, there she found Poni in very dreadful condition. On seeing the mother-in law of Poni, accused approached her and threatened her to kill if she will open her mouth about this incident to anyone in the village. When Dharmi Devi shouted, accused beaten her too very badly and ran away from there and left both of them there.

By some means, Poni and Dharmi Devi arrived at their village and called all the villagers; next day Dharmi Devi with some villagers went to the Nana police station to lodge First Information Report against the accused but to no result. The Duty officer of the Police station denied to register her F.I.R and abused them. Seeing the attitude of the Police Poni Devi decided to meet the Superintendent of Police to teach a lesson of Justice to accused and put an end over this kind of humiliation. Next day on 14^th July, Poni Devi met the Superintendent of police of Pali District and presented a memorandum and told him about the whole incident.

The Superintendent of Police, Pali directed Nana Police station to register Poni’s First Information Report. The local police registered Poni’s First Information Report on 6.8.2005 but did not provide a copy of FIR to Poni Devi. Again Poni Devi met the S.P of Pali for fair and just reinvestigation of the case; the S.P. of Pali assured her but did nothing. Not even a single penny in lieu of compensation has been given to Poni Devi for restoration.  

The deceased Lakhan Das belonging to Chamar caste, in Lodipur village, Akbarpur Taluk, Nawada district, Bihar state, was a brave man and always fought for justice. He and his wife Mano Devi (a ward member) even opposed the corrupt Head of the village namely Toofan Singh Kushwaha alias Sanjay Kumar s/o late Tulasi Kushwaha. Lakhan Das opposed the appointment of Bale Manjhi in the education guaranteed scheme because he lacked any proper qualification. All those incidents led to his death.

On 18/05/2005 there was a general meeting in the village panchayat. Lakhan Das had gone there to attend the meeting and there he had a quarrel with the head of the village and other dominating members of Lodipur. On the same night at 12am Bale Manjhi called for Lakhan Das, saying that the head of the village was calling him to his house. When Lakhan Das went there, the head of the village along with Brahmchari Prasad and Bale Manjhi shot him. Soon after the incident, his brother Kailash Ravidas ran to the police station for the FIR but he was told to come with Lakhan Das. He took Lakhan Das to the police station and requested them to take his brother to a Hospital after writing the statements of Lakhan Das. But unfortunately that was not done. At last with the request of Lakhan’s wife at 4am Jhulan Yadav of the police personnel gave the jeep to carry Lakhan to the nearby Hospital. On the way to the hospital he gave his last breath. No statements had been taken.

The FIR no. 60/05 was filed under the section 302, 34 and 27 IPC in Akbarpur police station. No compensation has been paid. No culprits have been arrested so far. The case is under trial.

Sumitra is a trained precious stone cutter. She was very much keen to establish her own machine for cutting, for which she applied in POP scheme for loan. On May 31, 2005, Rajendra Kumar went to Sumitra’s to give her Rs.3000 and asked her to his office and sign on a loan paper.

Next day morning Sumitra went to his office but Rajendra was not there, so she asked Jag Mohan Sharma for Rajendra, but he asked her to sit for a while. Jagmohan started asking about family matters to Sumitra and suggested her to meet his wife as she is a Doctor, she will provide some free medicines to Sumitra which will help her to improve her health. Further Jagmohan asked Sumitra to accompany him if she doesn’t mind as he was going home.

Sumitra was unaware about his ill intentions and went with him to his home on his Motorbike. Jag Mohan brought Sumitra to Shiv Colony, behind Poonam Cinema; there he brought her inside the room and closed the door. Sumitra protested but he did not listen, he covered her mouth with her Chunar, stripped all her clothes and raped her and again raped her after 10 min. Sumitra was injured very badly with blood oozing out of her genital parts.

Sumitra cried and proclaimed to tell her brother but Jag Mohan threatened her to kill if she will utter anything to anyone about the incident. Jag Mohan left Sumitra there and ran away.  Somehow, Sumitra arrived home. She was very much scared and did not say anything to her family members about the incident. But after 15 days she told her aunty about the whole incident. Next day on 18^th June 2005 Sumitra’s brother went to the Police station and lodged an FIR. Sumitra was sent for medical examination to the hospital but it could not be done that day. Next day her medical examination was done.

The local police registered the case of the victim under section 376 & 3(1)(xii) of the SC/ST Act 1989 and started investigation but during investigation, the officer Mr. J. C. Sharma who was appointed for investigation played an anti-Dalit and dubious role just to weaken the case and openly favored the perpetrator who incidentally belonged to his community. Not even a single police official approached and met the victim.  Sumitra was not sent for medical examination the next day of FIR but on its following day and her medical report was not presented with charge sheet.

Police presented Challan against the accused on 3^rd September 2005. Not even a single official went to meet Sumitra and her family. Sumitra due to pressure of the accused and his family changed her statement before the court. Thus she was declared hostile by the court and On September 28^th, 2005 the accused was discharged from the charge in lieu of benefit of the doubt.