On 29.1.2005 unidentified persons Gang Raped and murdered Dalit woman Gandham Shyamala of Yendrai (Village), Amaravathi(Mandal) , Guntur (Dist). Gandham Syamala (22 years) belongs to SC (Mala), w/o Rosaiah, aged 28 years R/o Yendraaji (Village), Amaravathi (Mandal), Guntur (Dist.). They have two children, G. Ashok Kumar (7) studying in III standard and G. Mamatha (6) in the Nursery. She runs a petty shop in Dalit colony and her husband goes for sand quarrying early morning and return home in the evening.

On 29.1.05 (Saturday) Rosaiah returned home in the evening, it was already dark and he took bath. After that his wife (Syamala) served food to him. She asked him if we could go for the prayer gathering at Amravathi as it is the last day of the prayer meeting. They usually don’t go for such prayers. Since she has some health problem they thought she might be cured of health problem. As she was expecting that some foreigners would pray for her healing. They are not in a position to go for the prayer because as Rosaiah is tired of his days work. But he took her to the bus stop at around 9.30PM on Saturday and returned home. Before he goes for work, he usually meets mutta mestry (leader of our workers group). On Sunday 30/01/2005 his mestry came to his house called him for work he got up and got ready and went for sand quarrying work at Muttayapalem. When he got up, he found his wife was not returned from prayer meeting. While he was leaving for work he told his brother, Gandham Lingaia (46) who has came from Nellore that Syamala has not come yet and asked him to take care.

Around 10.00 am one Police Constable of Amaravathi PS and Rama Babu (25) S/o Manohar of Yenraj village, went to his work place and informed him that his wife Syamala was hurt by an auto rickshaw. They asked him to come to the hospital and he went with them. But they took him to Amaravathi police station directly. After reaching PS they told him that some unidentified people raped his wife and her dead body was thrown in drainage, ½ km away from Amaravthi on Amaravathi- Vijayawada road. He felt terrible. The police took Rosaiah in the jeep to the place of occurrence where the body was lying. There some fifty to sixty people had gathered around. He was shocked to see her body in such a horrible condition. The hooks of the jacket were removed. There was no other piece of clothes on her body. Both the legs were bent upwards up to the shoulder. Rosaiah could not stay there for long. The body was seen 5 yards away from the road. There are no houses nearby. His relatives took the body and placed it in an auto rickshaw and took it to Amaravathi hospital. He was taken to Amaravath hospital in jeep. He was there till midnight and went to Fr.Balaji house. The police registered the case (6/05) as suspicious death.

Next day, Monday 31/01/2005, at around 6.30am he came to the hospital. At about 9.00AM Dara Prasad, Mandal Secretary of DBSU, T. Raghu, Fr. Balaji and he went to Guntur and met MLA, Prasad. The MLA opined that they should get the post mortem done at Guntur, the district headquarters and not at Amravathi fearing they may not get Justice done at Amaravathi because they suspected local perpetrators may influence. We then approached the Collector and requested that autopsy be done at Guntur. The Collector accepted their request and arranged the doctors to do autopsy. Fr. Balaji rang up to the Amravathi SI (Sub Inspector of the police) Ch. Chandramouli to bring the corpse to Guntur in an ambulance.

At around 3.00PM Monday 31/01/2005, the body was brought out after post mortem in Guntur. All the leaders who supported me came home in lorry with the body. The burial took place in our village cemetery.  Many people participate in the funeral and MLA, Prasad also attended the funeral. The Mandal Revenue Officer, G. Ravinder given Rs. 5000/- (five thousand only) to deceased son and said, “We will definitely do justice in this case. Rosaiah told that they shall send both your children (son and daughter) to Residential school. After few days when you are free, come to the Mandal Revenue Office and sign that you have received this Rs. 5000/-. Because of pressure from the Dalit organizations police did investigation and identified the accused and arrested. Sections were altered as 37. D.V.M Prasad, MLA of Thadikonda constitution also showed much interested in getting justice done. On Monday 31/01/2005 morning a group of people went and met the District Collector requesting his cooperation regarding the autopsy, the follow up of the case. The youth association, the women Sanghas and others were of the opinion that a rally be held at Armavathy on 3rd Feb 2005 to pressurize the official to peruse the case urgently and justify.  They believe the police are working hard to solve the problem. The MRO has also shown keen interest in following up the case.

Ravinder, Mandal Revenue Officer of Amravathy Mandal. MRO is much concerned about G. Syamala’s rape and murder case; he is putting his efforts to trace out the culprits. He is earnestly following up the case. (When asked why 174 Cr.PC only booked though it is evident that rape and murder has taken place) we are definitely going to change the section. We may have to wait for a couple of days at the most get a clear picture of the perpetrators. Then we can book the case under proper section. (When asked for relief for the victim’s family. once we get the culprits booked and proper section is applied, we could able to calculate the exact amount the victim’s family is to be given. The case is pending in Special Court, victim’s family members got 1^st phase compensation.

Padamata kesavpur village is in Bachannapeta mandal in Warangaldistrict. Different castes People are living in that village. It consists 40 Madiga, 30 Mala, 80 Yadavs and Kurmas,(BC) 20 Padmashalis, 20 Gowdas40 Reddys, 4 vysya, 2 vadrangi.(OC). Reddys are the dominant caste in the village. Kommu Laxmi (32) w/o Yadaiah is a resident of Kesavpur village. She is SC (Madiga). They have 2 daughters and two sons Sirisha, Uma (9), Srikanth (14) and Sridhar (12). Yadaiah was employed by the Panchayat to see the water related works. Laxmi is a labourer.

Six months ago Yadaiah (40) eloped with Rajamma (40) w/o Samalapalli Ramulu to Nizamabad. They were brought back to the village and the Panchayat advised them to live with their respective families. But Rajamma’s husband refused to do so because she eloped with a dalit. They went back to Nizamabad again. After few months Yadaiah called up Laxmi on phone to come to Nizamabad because he is unwell and Rajamma is not taking good care of him. On 1-1-2005 Laxmi went to Nizamabad and brought them back to the village. Namosu Megamala shouted at her saying “How dare you to bring them back to the village. I will see your end”.

On 4-1-2005, when Laxmi’s family was sleeping in their house, Samalapalli Ramulu (40), 2.Samalapalli Ratnakar (16), Namosu Megamala (30), Rajalingam(40), Srinu (25) armed with bamboo sticks and knifes attacked Laxmi and removed her clothes. They have beaten her with sticks on her breasts and kicked her on her genitals. They abused her badly and dragged her on the road and stabbed on her back. She was injured severely and bleeding badly. They also injured her mother in law Pochamma. On 5-01-2005police took her to the hospital in Janagaon. All this happened because her husband (SC) eloped with Rajamma (OC) and Laxmi brought them back. The higher castes people saw this as a sin. Police have registered a FIR and taken the accused in to custody. The case is pending in Special Court. The victim got only a little immediate relief from the MRO and she did not get any compensation.