Date:23/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/23/stories/2008012360251900.htm

National

“Officials acted swiftly in Dalit torture case”

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat is all praise for officials who took prompt action in the case of a sordid tale of a Dalit youth at Sategaon village in Maharashtra’s Nanded district. His eye was gouged out and acid from a car battery poured into it on January 6 for eloping with a minor girl belonging to the upper caste Marathas.

The youth, Chandrakant Gaikwad, was beaten up and wrongfully confined for about 16 hours by his tormentors.

The CPI(M) leader, who recently visited the village and met the Gaikwads, told The Hindu that the district officials “acted well and fast and this is a very positive thing.”

Suo motu action

Taking suo motu action, Superintendent of Police Vasant Jadhav arrested five of the girl’s relatives and was looking for six others.

Collector Radhakrishna Mopalwar arranged for a financial help of Rs. 1 lakh to Chandrakant and his friend Milind Jondhale, who was also tortured. But he did not lose his eye. Both boys were taken to Hyderabad for urgent treatment.

Ms. Karat said Chandrakant and the 16-year-old girl, both belonging to families of labourers, took shelter in Milind’s house at Kamareddy, Andhra Pradesh.

The girl’s relatives tracked them down there and brought all the three back to Sategaon, the boys reportedly tied with ropes like animals.

The boys were warned against reporting the matter to the police. Their families took them to a private hospital to escape a police case. But Chandrakant’s uncle living in a neighbouring village came to know about the incident and phoned the police.

Ms. Karat said the Marathas had acted in the name of the “honour of the caste.” And six out of the 30 Dalit families in the village moved out for fear of further reprisal. The rest of the families at Sategaon were Marathas. The girl was also traumatised by the episode.Critical of the major political parties, Ms. Karat said: “Not a single elected representative from the area, MP downward to member of the taluk panchayat, paid any attention to such a barbaric and caste-driven incident.” This showed the double standards of the political parties.