A MURDEROUS spree against dalits of Uttar Pradesh is continuing under Rajnath Singh's regime. Within a spate of a week, killings took place in Aligarh and Fatehpur districts. Five members of a dalit family in Hasnapur village of district Fatehpur, were brutally murdered in broad daylight on June 17. Tejania aged about 50 years, her daughter-in-law, Jagpatiya, her two children, Pooja (8 years old) and Ashish (one and half years) and her grand daughter, Lalita (10 years) were battered to death with a lathi by Devideen Singh.

On the June 18, a delegation of CPI(M) , AIAWU and AIDWA leaders visited the village on a fact finding trip. Tejania’s husband, Kallu and son, Babu (Jagpatiya’s husband) had gone to the city but Jagpatiya’s father, brother and other relatives were there at Tejania’s home. They were in a state of shock and had only heard reports of what happened. Other people in the village at first pretended to know nothing. They all claimed to have been at work when the incident occurred. It was only after persistent questioning that the ghastly events of the previous day unfolded. Later on, the members of the fact-finding team went to Kamla’s house in Fatehpur and talked to her and, when they went to meet the District Magistrate and SP, they met Babu and Kallu. It was only after talking to all these people in great detail that the following report has been prepared.

Kamla’s husband is in the BSF and posted in J&K so she and her children spent much of their time with Tejania and Kallu in the village. Her daughter, Lalita and Devideen’s nephew studied together in the village school and, in the third week of March, they quarrelled. Later in the day, Devideen’s wife came to Tejania’s hut and slapped Lalita and her sister, Mamta and abused them. When Tejania found out, she complained to Devideen who dragged her out of her hut by her hair and, beating her with a lathi, dragged her more than 100 yards, abusing her all the while. Tejania and Kallu went to the thana at Husainganj but the Station House Officer (SHO) refused to register a case. On March 23, they met the SP at Fatehpur and, on his intervention, a case under the SC/ST Act was registered and sent to the Circle Officer for further enquries. No arrests were made. Meanwhile, Devideen used his close associates in the Congress party and BJP to plead his case. A thakur family in the village that the team spoke to said that Devideen was a gambler and a hoodlum who used to roam around with armed thugs. Since he was useful to local politicians, both the Congress and BJP leaders used their influence to prevent his arrest. This state of affairs, however, could not go on forever and the local police told Devideen that he would have to surrender in the court with the other accused otherwise he would be arrested. June 18 was the last date for his surrender. As the deadline approached, Devideen made frantic efforts to pressurise Tejania to withdraw her case. He approached her lawyer and also collected many of the villagers but she refused. Finally, he offered to pay her 20,000 rupees but she was adamant. On the June 16, he renewed his offer and when she turned him down, he threatened her with dire consequences.

On the morning of June 17, Tejania went to an ‘urad’ dal field belonging to farmers of the barber community about one kilometer away from the place she was working on daily wages. Some time later at about 9.00 am, her grandchildren, Lalita and Munna, came with her food and stayed with her in the field. Soon after this, Devideen came to her hut in the village. Her son, Ramesh, who works in Delhi was there with his wife and baby and Devideen asked him to go and call his mother from the field. He did as he was told but Tejania sent him back saying that she would not come. After Ramesh gave him this message, Devideen left. He came back after less than an hour in an inebriated condition and told Ramesh to leave for Delhi immediately with his family. Ramesh panicked and, with his wife and child, left the hut and went to the field. Here he found the battered bodies of his dead mother and niece. Devideen had beaten them to death. The little boy, Munna, escaped their fate only because he ran away and was hidden by the people who owned the land. In a state of complete terror, Ramesh and his family ran to the nearest tempo stand and fled to Fatehpur to Kamla’s house. Meanwhile, after Ramesh and his family left the village, Devideen attacked Jagpatiya who was bathing her children at the hand-pump in front of their hut. Not satisfied with beating her to death, he picked up the two little children, Pooja and Ashish, and smashed their heads to pulp on the brick lane next to the hand-pump. Such barbarity against dalits is becoming a regular thing as the UP administration has time and again given signals that it is not bothered in stopping these attacks.