The Dalits of the village Rupaspur, Tehsil Badi, P.S. Rupaspur, District Dhaulpur, are being humiliated at all places. The affected family has 18 members and the heads of the family are Nanak Ram, Banne Ram and Yad Ram.  They support the family working in the fields and working for a daily wage.

Six months before the incident took place; a few members of the affected family were working under the cruel Suresh Sharma for stone chipping. When they stopped working in the stone chipping factory, Suresh Sharma went to demand for Rs.22, 000. They refused to give this amount which led them to a quarrel and ended in beating. The victims registered an F I R against this incident.

On July 21, 2004 at 6.30 am the oppressor Vishnu Brahmin came to the family with a complaint that they have encroached upon his land. He took them to the field to rectify the problem. Due to this, tension was created among them. Yad Ram, Meena, Chandrawati, Banne Ram, etc. who were already present there also got involved in the quarrel. The oppressors beat the people and stripped off the cloths of Meena, beat her black and blue and penetrated a stick into her vagina. Not only this, the oppressors under the leadership of Suresh went to the village and ambushed them. The Brahmins made the affected people stay at home. Banai Ram gathered courage and went to the police station. The DSP instead abused him and referred him to Kanchanpura Police Station. When he reached there the inspector was not there. He waited for him till three O’clock in the evening. It happened on July 21, 2004. When the person narrated the incident, the inspector ironically told him that he was alive still and that he would have come to take his body for the postmortem. Finally, the report was taken by the police and an enquiry was headed by the DSP of SC/ST shell at Dhaulpur. A criminal case was registered against the accused u/o 354 IPC & 3(1)(iv) of SC/ST (PoA) Act. Based on these the victims got Rs. 50,000 as an aid. At present the case is going on in the court.

The SHO did not behave in proper way instead he passed an ironical comment, “Oh! You are still alive. I’ve heard that you have died, so I was coming to take your body to take the postmortem report.” The DSP of Badi abused the victims and chased them away. 

Janu Kumari (12), belongs to Musahar (SC) is the youngest daughter of Ram Vilas Sadai and Shanti Devi.  After her father died of tuberculosis in 1999, her eldest brother became the head of the household. He is newly married and drinks regularly. Due to poverty, Janu Kumari never attended school and is therefore illiterate. She has four elder brothers and two elder sisters. Janu, along with her mother and siblings, works as a daily wage agricultural labourer. Janu works in the fields of a dominant caste Yadav landowner named Lakhan Yadav. Lakhan’s son is named Kishan Yadav (17 years). Janu had five goats. When she goes to the fields to work, her goats would accompany her.  She would tie them up and they would graze on the grass only in the restricted area where she tied them.

On 2 June 2004, however, when Janu was planting rice in Lakhan Yadav’s field, her goats managed to free themselves from their bonds and ran into Lakhan’s field where seedlings had been planted. The goats began eating the seedlings. Kishan Yadav saw this and came running with a lathi. Upon reaching the area, he began beating the goats brutally with his lathi.  The goats scattered in fear, but one goat was pregnant and could not escape.  Kishan Yadav knocked the pregnant goat onto her side, and then proceeded to hit her extremely hard five or six times with the lathi. Janu, seeing this, came running to the field. Seeing her approaching, Kishan began screaming obscenities at her, saying, “Whore!  Wandering bitch, you don’t even tie up your goats properly!  I’m going to beat your goats to death, and I’ll do the same to your whole family!” In response, Janu replied in a very soft voice, “I always keep my goats tied up.  These just now escaped. My goats haven’t even eaten anything; why are you beating them so severely?”

Kishan Yadav grew angry at this response and began slapping Janu Kumari. He shouted, “Low caste girl, you dare talk back to me?” Her face was hurting from the slaps, and Janu herself grew angry. She slapped Kishan Yadav twice in return.  Then Kishan became livid, seized Janu by her hair and began severely beating her with his fists. He punched her seven or eight times in the face. Janu was in severe pain and became dizzy. Her entire face swelled up with internal bleeding. Crying, she walked home and told her mother what had happened. Kishan Yadav remained in his field. Janu’s mother approached him and said, “How much of your harvest did my goat eat up that you’ve beaten up the goat and my daughter?” Kishan Yadav replied with verbal abuse, saying, “Wandering prostitute!  Get out of my way or will beat you too!” Hearing this, Janu’s mother left.

On the same day, the pregnant goat that Kishan Yadav had severely beaten died along with its unborn kids. Janu and her mother were extremely upset by this, as goat-rearing provides for a substantial part of their livelihood. Janu says, “We had been planning to sell the kids after the pregnant goat gave birth, and with that money I hoped to purchase some decent clothes for my brothers and sisters. When Kishan Yadav killed the mother goat, I had to give up that hope.” Janu and her mother considered attempting to file a case against Kishan Yadav for beating Janu Kumari and killing their goat. Because they had no money, however, they decided that going to the police would be futile. Thereafter they left the matter and did not attempt to obtain justice.

The four deceased Dalits Uday Paswan, Vijay Paswan, Naga Paswan, and Shravan Paswan, belonging to SC community were leaders of their community. The village Lahsuna, Masaudi police station, Patna district in Bihar consists of two major communities, which are rivalry to each other. Kurmi community supported the People’s War Group and Paswan community supported the CPI (ML). The Kurmi community always wanted to dominate the Paswan community. They had the political tension.

On 18/05/2004 at 10.30 am the headmaster of the High School Nadma, Subhas Singh, s/o Devcharan Singh, from Sikandarpur village, Masaudi police station, Patna district, Bihar, was shot dead by the unknown persons. In retaliation to his killing the People’s War Group’s people attacked the Paswan community in Lahsuna village at 1.30pm on the same day. While the Paswans of the village were taking rest under the tree after their work in the field around 37 people came with their guns and started firing at them. Paswans ran for their lives but the four dalits Uday, Vijay, Naga and Shravan Paswan were caught and shot dead by the People’s War Group.  With the help of CPI (ML) people of the village encircled the residence of the DM and the dead body of the four was taken to the Patna Medical College Hospital for the postmortem report on 19/05/2004. On the day of the incidence Shailendra Kumar Chaudhary( SDO) and Dr. Gautam Goswami (DM) came to the village and gave rupees five hundred each to the family for the cremation of the dead. The victims were granted Rs. 10,000 each after the incidence. And also they were given food grains for a week. Apart from that they were promised to be paid compensation of Rs. 50,000 each and to be offered government jobs to a person from the family of the deceased.

But no compensation has been paid and only six perpetrators Lathi Singh alias Surjit Singh, Sahdev Singh, Yogendra Singh, Manoj Singh, Arwind Singh and Umesh Singh has been arrested. The promise is not yet fulfilled. 30 people from the Paswan community have run away from the village, as they are frightened of their lives. Rajendra Paswan filed the FIR no. 73/04 under sections 147/148/149/448/314/302 IPC, Arms Act 27, CLA Act 17 and 3/4 in the Masauri police station. No sections of SC/ST POA, 1989 are registered to the case. Now an inspector Bhola Mahesh of Patna has been investigating the case. Charge sheet has been submitted in the court. The case is under trial. The FIR no. 73/04 was filed under sections 147/148/149/448/314/302 IPC, Arms Act 27, CLA Act 17 and 3/4 by Rajendra Paswan in the Masauri police station. No sections of SC/ST POA, 1989 are registered to the case. Now an inspector Bhola Mahesh of Patna has been investigating the case. Charge sheet has been submitted in the court. The case is under trial.