Dalit houses ransacked in Haryana village, 18 arrested

Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh Rana told The Indian Express that the accused were produced before a court on Monday and sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Keeping in view the tension in the village, heavy police force has been deployed in the village. Also on Monday, a panchayat meeting in the village involving both communities failed to resolve the dispute.

About Saturday’s incident, DSP Rana said: “It was an exercise to terrorise the Dalits in the village. The accused went to Dalit households and caused some damage to their property,” said Rana. Former village sarpanch Shyam Singh, also a Dalit, said: “The attackers ransacked almost all houses of Chamar community, which are around 250 in the area.”

Satpal, who has four sons, added, “We were sitting in front of our houses at 9 pm (Saturday) when they, carrying sticks in hands, came to attack us. We ran for shelter…It was a sudden attack, otherwise we would have fought back.”
During the attack, doors and domestic items like charpai, fans were damaged on Saturday night prompting Yamunanagar SP Rajesh Kalia to rush to the village at 1 am in the night. Few Dalits also complained of minor injuries.

At the heart of tension is the alleged elopement of a 19-year-old girl from upper caste community, who is a teacher at a private school, with a 21-year-old youth who is a school dropout. The girl’s house is located near that of the youth.
Two days after their alleged elopement, girl’s family members alleging abduction had lodged a complaint prompting the police to lodge an FIR against the youth under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) of the IPC. However, attack on Dalit houses came after speculation in the village that the boy and girl had got married. Shyam Singh, however, said that the couple had plans to get married on Monday.

“We traced them at a hotel in Chandigarh on Saturday evening. The girl said in front of us that she had left home on her own, adding that she wanted to marry the same youth. They had even hired an advocate to approach the court. Though, in the presence of Rajput community members, the girl was handed over to her relatives at 10 pm. We fail to understand then why our houses were ransacked,” said Shyam Singh.

A Rajput leader Pawan Singh Rana, who is trying resolve the dispute, said, “Most of the youths, who were involved in the clash, had come from other villages and not Karhera village.” With a population of 2500 persons, Karhera has almost 50 per cent Rajputs, while the Dalits have little less population there. Most Rajputs here are dependent on agriculture, while the Dalits depend on labour related works, barring few Chamar community members who have farm land.

On Monday, a panchayat involving both community members was held in the village to resolve the dispute.
“As per demands of Dalits, the Rajputs had agreed for compensating their losses apart from giving in writing that such incident won’t be repeated in future. However, the Rajputs did not agree to Dalits’s demand in which they wanted that the accused boys being thrashed with shoes in front of the villagers,” said a police officer who is supervising the case.

Police have booked the Rajput youths under charges of assault, trespassing, criminal intimidation, rioting, causing damage to the property and under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, the Dalit youth accused of abduction of the girl has not yet been arrested.