Bhopal, May 29: In a gruesome incident that portrays the vulnerability of women from deprived sections in modern India, a Dalit woman was raped by a village muscleman in the presence of her two children and mother-in-law because her ailing daily wager husband refused to cut a tree at the farm of the accused.
The matter came to light when a local journalist tipped off the police about the incident. The Dalit family in Chhatarpur district, 350 kms of Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh state in India, was rescued on Wednesday and a case was registered. The police said that the prime suspect, a village muscleman, was arrested on Thursday. His two accomplices are, however, on the run.
What seems to the trigger was when the Dalit man refused to cut a tree in the farm of the local muscleman as the labourer was not well. Angered with this, the muscleman allegedly beat up the man and went to his house, abducted his wife, kids, and mother-in-law. The woman who is pregnant told the media that she was raped by the muscleman in front of her children and mother-in-law.
What made matters worse was that the woman also accused the police of deliberately not adding rape to the list of offences in the FIR. The three accused, named in the FIR, have been charged with causing hurt, kidnapping, obscenity, and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocity) Act. The local police in Chhatarpur said they will add relevant sections relating to rape in the FIR given the woman’s disclosure before the media.
“The woman has injury marks on her body and in her complaint, she informed police about physical torture only. She didn’t inform us about any sexual assault but if she is saying, we will add the section of rape in the FIR,” the police said.
The accused held the family for four days where they were tortured and beaten said Chhatarpur SP Sachin Sharma.
“Police rescued them on Wednesday and admitted them to a local hospital from where they have been discharged,” a local police official said.