Pardhis hounded out of MP village after alleged rape

The Pardhis spent the first night after the incident at the Multai Police Station while villagers waited for them outside. The police had no clue how to deal with the situation and escorted them back to the village.

Though the alleged rapists had been arrested, the villagers wanted the entire community to go away.

The next day, the SP and the district collector tried to pacify the villagers and tell them it would be possible to evict only illegal occupants, but in vain.

The administration promised the villagers that demolition of illegal Pardhi hamlets would begin by 11 am on Tuesday. But the villagers had their own plan of settling scores with the Pardhis, whom they accuse of criminal activities. When police came to know of it, they told Pardhis that they had only minutes to save their lives.

“They dragged us out of our homes and bundled us into police vans,” Kapuri Madan, a 30-year-old said outside the Bhopal railway station, where the Pardhis have been putting up for the last two days.

Much before the official demolition began, a mob of more than 7,000 people from 12 villages set fire to Pardhi Dhana, a cluster of 62 houses. The loot and arson went on in the presence of policemen and local politicians, all of whom are siding with the villagers.

SP J S Sansanwal said the villagers did not even spare houses built on land provided legally by the administration 15 years ago. The settlement has grown over the years as Pardhis illegally built huts and houses nearby.

“The villagers would have simply slaughtered Pardhis had they been present,” said Sakalle, defending the role of the police. While some men fled to Maharashtra, others thought Bhopal would be a safer place and came along with women and children. Changing trains and keeping a low profile they managed to reach the state capital. They have no idea where they will go from here. They definitely know they can’t go back to the village.

“They had become such a nuisance because of their criminal activities. They killed a farmer who refused to give them tomatoes,” alleged Congress MLA from Mansod Sukhdev Panse.

Cutting across political lines, local leaders supported the villagers when they were taking the law into their own hands.

“The police are responsible for what happened because they chose not to register complaints on a number of occasions, either because they were afraid or because they shared the booty from loots and thefts committed by Pardhis,” said Samajwadi Party MLA Dr Suneelam Sansalwal.

“Why are all of us being penalised for the crime committed by few men. The police have already arrested them,” asked Ratna Pardhi, a former member of the village panchayat. “We own land in Chouthai but are now begging for food,” said Sangeeta and her husband Alsha, probably the richest among the community.