MP Dalit girl refused to drop rape charge, burnt

A 15-year-old Dalit girl, who refused to drop a rape charge against an upper-caste youth, was burnt alive by the alleged rapist when she was sleeping at her home late Tuesday.

A 15-year-old Dalit girl, who refused to drop a rape charge against an upper-caste youth, was burnt alive by the alleged rapist when she was sleeping at her home late Tuesday.

Asha Katiya told the police before she died of her burns at a hospital in Pipariya on Wednesday that Chhote Singh Rajput had threatened to kill her if she did not change her statement in court. “I will burn you, set your house afire and cut your father into pieces,’’ her mother, Shashibai, quoted the 22-year-old as warning them when she was with her daughter in the field on Tuesday afternoon.

Late in the afternoon, riding the only horse in the village, Chhote Singh sped past the girl’s house and around 9 pm, doused the victim with kerosene from an opening in the roof of a room where she was sleeping and threw a burning matchstick, Anita, the victim’s aunt, told The Indian Express on Thursday. Anita claimed she saw Chhote Singh escape into in the fields.

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Unlike the Dalit family which is very poor, the Rajput family owns two acres of land. The horse belongs to someone else but Chhote Singh rode it occasionally.

Asha had been allegedly raped in July and the court proceedings were on in Hoshangabad, the district headquarters about 90 km away. She was to appear in the court in a month.

The family had a tough time arranging for a vehicle to take Asha to the hospital as she lay outside her house. The family members alleged that though there are many vehicles in the upper-caste dominated village, no one came to their rescue and they had to call one from Sandia, about 8 km away. “They thought if Asha dies the rape case will have no meaning,’’ Asha’s grandmother Narbadi alleged.

The victim’s mother said the family was all prepared to leave the village the next morning but Chhote Singh struck before that. The family, however, did not inform the police or the villagers about the threat to their life.

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The upper-caste villagers deny the charges levelled by the Dalit family. “He was with us when the incident happened, there are many eyewitnesses,’’ Chhote Singh’s parents Laxaman Singh and Jeerabai claimed. He wanted to douse the fire but returned when he learnt that the girl’s father named him, Govind Sharma, a neighbour claimed.

“The police are simply not recording our statements, they are going by what the girl said before dying, they should investigate the case properly,” Harish Sharma, a villager said, suggesting that the girl committed suicide. “It was a mistake all of us commit in our youth,’’ he said of the rape charge. According to him, the family was getting frustrated because they could not find a match for her.

SP Ved Prakash Sharma and DSP (SC/ST) J S Jaggi said the police are going by the dying declaration where the victim clearly named Chhote Singh. The alleged killer was arrested on Wednesday afternoon from his home, a proof the villagers say proves his innocence. “He would have fled the village had he committed the crime,’’ sarpanch Govind Singh Rajput said.