Newslaundry: Shimla: Tuesday, September 18,
2018.
Sitting behind the polished wooden desk
in his office, Sirmaur’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Rohit Malpani looked
like a man who hadn’t had a good night's sleep in days but wore a look of
slight satisfaction.
The Director General of Police had just
left Sirmaur Police Station after holding a press conference earlier during the
day. “This is the biggest case I’ve touched so far,” said Malpani, who has been
an SP in Sirmaur for the past 14 months. “But only masala gets covered in Crime
Patrol, so you won’t see this on TV. It is a proper UP-Bihar style murder:
first hit him with sticks, then throw his body on the road and run a car over
him frontwards, then backwards, and then frontwards over his face again—all of
it in broad daylight at around noon. Even though there is a school nearby as
well as a Block Education Office, not a single person is ready to speak.”
The case Malpani is referring to is the
murder of Dalit RTI activist Kedar Singh Jindan (43) that took place on
September 7 at Bakrash village in Sirmaur District’s Shillai Block, Himachal
Pradesh, around noon. A ‘one-man army,’ Jindan, who was also a practising
advocate at the Shimla High Court, worked for the rights of Scheduled Castes
and Tribes as well as for those who brought their cases of inter-caste
marriages to him. He had also contested last year’s Assembly elections from
Shillai on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.
Jindan, who belonged to the Koli
community, had held a press conference earlier in June in Shimla, wherein,
using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, he had claimed that Below Poverty
Line (BPL) certificates were being tampered with in his native place of
Shillai. He said certificates were being issued to people belonging to the
upper castes, who not only have heavy incomes but also lead a well-to-do life
adorned with houses, multiple vehicles, etc.
He alleged that Jai Prakash, the
up-pradhan of Bakrash panchayat and a Rajput, had tampered with the BPL list
and got a few of his family members’ names on it, thereby making them eligible
to reap the benefits that should have rightfully gone to someone who was from
SC/ST background. Following this, some members of Jai Prakash’s family lost
their BPL privileges—something that they held Jindan solely responsible for.
Also, to have a Dalit show you up in this manner, wasn’t something that sat
well with the rest of the Rajputs in Bakras village.
In the June press conference, Jindan had
also stated that his life was in danger. He had lodged a complaint with the
NHRC for an incident dating June 12, 2017. The “place of the incident” was
“Shila area” and “Simla” and the case was “disposed with directions” on August
23 2017, stating that “the complaint be transmitted to the concerned authority
for such action as deemed appropriate. The authority concerned is directed to
take appropriate action within 8 weeks and to inform the complainant of the
action taken in the matter.”
Jindan's wife said he was attacked last
December as well. Hemalata lives in
Shimla, along with their two daughters, Vanshika and Dikshika, who study in
Standard X and VII, respectively. She had met Jindan when she was 22 years old
and studying in the first year of her B.A course. They both had a love
marriage—Hemalata belonged to an upper caste from the town of Rohru village in
Himachal Pradesh, and Jindan was a Dalit from Paab in Shillai.
“He was going to Shillai by bus and was
dragged out of the front seat, where he was sitting when the bus reached Sataun
village (in Kamrau Tehsil, Sirmaur) at around 4 pm. A mob of 50 men beat him up
with sticks in the middle of the street, and no one came to his rescue. Sab
tamasha dekh rahe the. Even the bus driver didn’t object or try to stop the
act.” She further stated: “They hit him a lot…he was bleeding and very badly
injured. The attackers then dropped six buckets of sand over him and left him
to die.”
However, Jindan regained consciousness
after 45 minutes, and in his bloody stupor, started shouting for water. “No one
gave him a sip to drink,” said Hemalata. “He roamed the roads in his
blood-stained clothes but no one gave him a lift. Maybe nobody recognised him.
He was finally taken away in a police van to a hospital in Nahan.”
Hemalata also stated that Jindan had made
a list of 35 names from whom he thought his life was in danger, and that this
was submitted to police authorities as well. She also pointed out that Jai
Prakash’s name was present in the list. “We used to be harassed when we lived
in Shillai; people used to knock on our doors late at night and also give
dhamkis over the phone. They said: ‘Sataun mein bach gaya, agli baar haddi bhi
nahi milegi.’”
On September 7, Jindan was brutally
beaten up with sticks and his face mutilated at the Block Primary Education
Office (BPEO) in Bakrash village, Shillai, after which he was thrown onto the
main road below and then crushed thrice by Jai Prakash’s Scorpio. Jai Prakash
then himself called the Sirmaur police authorities and said he was involved in
an accident. However, two people—who have now turned witness and are in
police’s protective custody—saw the event unfold, or at least, are the only
ones willing to come forward and say that they did. They are Raghuveer, son of
Nain Singh, the local teacher at a school that is located right next to the
BPEO in Bakrash where the incident took place. Nain Singh and his son are
residents of Paab village—a remote and backward hilly village with no more than
10 houses—located above Kumrau tehsil in Shillai; the former, higher altitude
area is where the Dalits live, while the latter lower-ground area is where the
Rajputs reside.
Bakrash, where the murder took place, is
only a few kilometres away down the curving mountain road, an area that can be
seen from Paab. The other witness is Jindan’s nephew Suresh, who happened to be
passing by the spot when Jindan was thrown onto the road.
According to Nain Singh, Jindan had
arrived at his house in Paab the previous evening and had spent the night
there. In the morning, while Nain Singh had gone to the fields, Jindan took off
with Raghuveer on the motorbike for a ‘meeting’ at the BPEO office. Now, with
his son Raghuveer turning witness in the case, Nain Singh puts on a brave front
in the battering rainfall below his terrace roof in Paab village, but his fear
is both, visible and justified. “If they can kill such a big leader in broad
daylight, then what stops them from killing us?” he asked.
“This is a murder case—even the
post-mortem report has found that,” said SP Malpani. “Three people have been
arrested so far—Jai Prakash, Gopal Singh, and Karm Singh a.k.a Kaku.” SP
Malpani also pointed out that Jai Prakash was an accused in another SC/ST
atrocities case in Shillai earlier in March this year. He added: “Raghuveer’s
164 statement has been conducted on September 12; this is the testimony a
witness gives in front of the court, as the statement given before police does
not count in a court of law. We got his 164 done before a judicial magistrate
in Paonta Sahib on Tuesday and his testimony is that it was a murder and that
all three people who have been arrested, were involved.”
Malpani also confirmed that the prime
accused, Jai Prakash, had initially tried to pass off the murder as an
accident, but did not succeed. “The story that was recited by the accused was
that it was an accident and that Jindal came under his vehicle, but after
seeing the body, we knew this wasn’t an accident. The body was brutally
murdered and face was crushed by the Scorpio. We have seen accidents: we
investigate them daily. This was not a routine run-over by a vehicle.” He also
said: “Jai Prakash has accepted that he has committed the murder—we didn't
disclose this before because we wanted to corroborate information with our
witnesses. He (Jai Prakash) did deny it, but later, when he was confronted and
questioned, he admitted to doing it.”
However, when asked whether this was a
caste-based atrocity—since Section 3 (2) (5) of the SC/ST atrocities act has
been implemented on the case—SP Malpani said: “This is not really a caste-based
violence; it is more of a personal enmity between the accused and the victim.”
Jindan’s older brothers’—Bahadur Singh
and Hira Singh—who live in Paab, told Newslaundry that after Jindan had moved
to Shimla with his wife and children more than eight years back, they had
specifically warned him not to come back to the village.
“We felt there was some conspiracy being
plotted against him that posed a threat to his life,” said Bahadur Singh. “When
he came to the village on September 6, he didn’t stay here—he spent the night
at Nain Singh’s house and went to the BPEO from there itself next morning,”
said Hira Singh. “I was in the fields at the time when I got a call saying that
Jindan had been killed and run over by a vehicle. I called the police
authorities to provide me with protection so that I could go near the dead
body, but the police had already taken the body away, that too without
informing the family.”
When asked if Jindan had ever asked for
police protection, Hira Singh said: “Every office knew that he had been
threatened and there was a serious threat to his life. None of this would have
happened if he had police protection.”
While the gruesome details of this murder
have shaken the state of Himachal Pradesh, no politicians from national parties
have commented on this atrocity. Out of the 68 MLAs present in the state, only
Rakesh Singha of the CPI(M) has stood in solidarity with the deceased Jindan’s
family—an act for which his effigies have been burnt across the state of
Himachal. “I need the government’s help, but all I have been given till now are
promises,” said Hemalata.
She wants the compensation provided to be
Rs 20 lakh and not Rs 8.5 lakh as the SC/ST Act makes provisions for. “I want a
job (she has an MA B.Ed) and a full education for both my daughters. We don’t
have any money in our banks and are paying Rs 5,000 as rent for this house (in
Shimla)—we need a house too.” A CBI probe too, is one of her demands, although
a five-member SIT has already been assigned to the case, headed by ASP Virender
Thakur.
The trans-Giri area of Sirmaur (known so
because of the Giri river’s presence running through this remote and untouched
part of Himachal Pradesh) is no stranger to caste-based discrimination and
violence. Ashish Bharti (35), District General Secretary of the Dalit Shoshan
Shakti Manch (DSSM) of Sirmaur Parishad, said there was a case that occurred in
trans-Giri area earlier in August this year wherein a Dalit by the name of
Rajender Singh had suffered 18 fractures on his body after he was beaten up by
a mob of upper caste men. His crime? Entering the village temple. “The police
tried to register only a case of violence here, but after DSSM built pressure,
the SC/ST Atrocities Act was included,” he said.
Another case in trans-Giri area was that
of a Dalit being beaten up at a marriage ceremony for eating at the same time
as people belonging to the savrna group. Many villagers narrate incidents of how
they often had to give goats in compensation for not turning up when summoned
by the Rajputs, sometimes up to seven goats, with each goat costing around Rs
7-10,000 each. “Most of the people belonging to SC/ST in trans-Giri work in the
fields of the Rajputs and so-called higher caste people. They are dependent on
them for work and an income,” said Bharti.
Even in the case of Jindan’s murder, the
Sirmaur police had first registered an FIR under Section 302 (Punishment for
Murder) and not under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. It was only after an all-night
protest march along with Jindan’s body on The Ridge in Shimla on the night of
September 8 that the following morning the SC/ST Act was included.
Dr Tanwar Singh, Secretariat of the
CPI(M) and President of Himachal Kisaan Sabha, who spearheaded the protest
march of nearly 300 people that night, said: “At first, the case was only
registered under IPC 302 but after we protested all night, the SCT/ST
atrocities Act was included the next morning.”
Hemalata too doesn’t seem to trust the
Sirmaur Police. “I wanted the post-mortem to be conducted in IGMC in Shimla
because earlier when he (Jindan) was attacked in Sataun (in Shillai), the
police had not taken any action. After his post-mortem was conducted in IGMC, I
didn't even get a receipt intimating me of his release, and they (police) tried
to take his body away back to Sirmaur.” That is when the protest broke out.
Three days after the death of Jindan, on
September 10, a Rajput Sabha gathering was held in Shillai. SP Malpani was
present in Shillai along with other police personnel at the time, to maintain
law and order. “Nearly 500 people had assembled; their demands were varied,” he
said. “They wanted the SC/ST Atrocities Act should be removed from the case, said
that the death was due to an accident, that there was too much heavy a police
force deployed in the village which was not required, and lastly, that MLA
Rakesh Singha (CPIM) should not have come along with Jindan’s post-mortem body
to Shillai to attend the cremation. I personally interacted with them (Rajput
Sabha) and invited them to have a dialogue with me; I suggested they come and
meet me, in as many numbers as they please, and have a dialogue with me.”
SP Malpani explained his reason for
suggesting so: “If anger comes out in phases, it helps in maintaining the
peace. I wanted to dissipate their anger in pieces so that it wouldn't all come
down at one time—like in a typical mob mentality.”
When asked about the suspicions on police
personnel in Sirmaur, Malpani dismissed these claims and said they had always
treated this as a murder case and not tried to hide anything. “Our
investigation is on the right track. We have done a good job. We have collected
all material evidences—forensic reports, post-mortem reports, etc. There were
two big challenges to the case: investigation, as well as maintaining law and
order. We have managed to do both.” He also pointed out to the sheer strength
of the police force deployed to maintain law and order in the area. “We went
with 225 policemen; there were two reserves from Solan and two from the 6th
battalion and two reserves from our own district Sirmaur, to Shillai with the
dead body for cremation on September 9. These numbers are unprecedented—it is
not a Mumbai or a Delhi.”
According to him, the last time such a
heavy force was deployed in the area was around 10-12 years back, when there
was a triple murder case in Paonta Sahib, Sirmour. “It was the impact of these
high numbers of police personnel that got everyone scared; even the upper caste
knew that we would arrest them if they tried to break the peace. We had planned
that if anything speech was given in Sirmaur on that day, we would arrest
people.” Speaking of the post-mortem incident that led to the protest, he said:
“It is procedural for police officials to first hand over the body to doctors,
and once the post-mortem is done, take it back from the doctors and then hand
it over to the family.”
The five-member SIT team assigned to the
case comprises SI Jeetram, the investigating officer from Paonta Sahib, SI
Mohar Singh, the SHO from Majra, ASI Vidyasagar IO from Paonta Sahib, SI
Virochen Negi who is the SHO from Sangda, and DSP Rajgarh Dushyant Sarpal— all
led by additional SP Virendra Thakur, and supervised by SP Malpani.
Newslaundry also accompanied a
seven-member independent fact-finding team of Human Rights Defenders and
Activists visiting Shillai, in the Jindan murder case. The team comprised Kuldeep
Verma, Birbal (Dalit Vikas Sangathan Sirmaur), Sukhdev Vishwapremi (Centre for
Mountain Dalit Rights), Advocate Sanjay, Rajkumar (National Campaign on Dalit
Human Rights & National Dalit Movement for Justice), Raja Velu from Human
Rights Defenders Alert and Manshi Asher from Kangra Citizens Rights Group. The
team interacted with members of the community including the Pradhaan of the
Gundaha Panchayat (of which Paab is a part) as well as members of the
administration and the police.
On September 14, the team published an
interim statement and expressed some concerns: “…the police had not responded
adequately to the repeated threats received by Jindan from different members of
the community who were irked by his work. Last year too there was an attack on
Jindan at Sattaun where he was pulled out of a bus and beaten up badly by
people who were enraged that he supported an inter-caste marriage in the area.
Jindan's family informed us that he was left buried in a heap of sand and left
there to die. While he survived that attack, he had exposed that a large number
of people from the area who were out to get him and they are all complicit in
the murder according to the kin of Jindan. This needs to be investigated.”
Not so long ago, Kedar Singh Jindan used
to run a Superlative Academy For Competition (SAC) in Shimla. A dusty old
business card with his name emblazoned next to the SAC logo shows him as its
Managing Director. The card reads: “What makes the difference between others
and us? We create the talent, while others hunt for it.” The lines printed on
the bottom of this piece of paper reads: “Every successful person has a painful
story, and every painful story has a successful ending. Accept the pain and get
ready for SUCCESS." Jindan was a crusader for all causes: he fought for
the rights of the oppressed SC/ST community, favoured inter-caste marriages,
and was a voice that rattled Himachal’s deeply caste-ridden society. His murder
will not be an easy pain to accept for those he fought for and indeed his
family.