In Dalit man’s suicide, shadows from a 2016 murder-gangrape case

On May 2, the 37-year-old Dalit man was found hanging from the ceiling at his home. Police said family members found a four-line suicide note in his pocket in which he blamed the Maratha men. Within 24 hours, the Ahmednagar Police arrested three of the accused for alleged abetment of suicide.

According to the complaint filed by the Dalit victim’s father, his son had gone for the tamasha, a popular folk art form, on the night of May 1, but did not return home. The following morning, the father got to know from villagers that his son had got into a scuffle and was allegedly thrashed by upper caste men. Family members alleged that they found him lying naked at the village crematorium and brought him home on a motorcycle.

The FIR says the victim told his father that around 11.30 pm on May 1, when he started dancing at the tamasha, the three accused made casteist remarks and assaulted him. As matters got out of hand, the tamasha was stopped. Later, as the victim was on his way home, the accused allegedly took him to the cremation ground, forced him to strip and assaulted him, the FIR stated.

Around 3.30 pm the next day, the victim allegedly hanged himself at his residence. He is survived by his parents, wife and two sons.

Police have booked the three accused in the suicide case under relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. A court has remanded them in police custody till May 8.

Superintendent of Ahmednagar Police Rakesh Ola told The Indian Express, “An FIR was lodged as per the complaint of the deceased’s father and the accused were arrested. Further probe is on.”

The father of the accused said the case was “false” and that his son had been framed in the case. “We got to know that a minor scuffle had happened since the man (the victim) was drunk and was causing a ruckus at the tamasha programme. My son was among those who intervened to stop the brawl. It is a lie to say that my son assaulted and thrashed him. We have no connection with the suicide. The case is false. We have complete faith in the law. Truth will prevail.”

Police sources said given the caste angle and the shadow of the 2016 incident, the case was being handled sensitively.

The 2016 rape-murder case

The gangrape and murder of the 14-year-old Maratha girl, allegedly by Dalit men from the village, had set off protests across Maharashtra’s towns and villages.

As per police records, around 6.45 pm on July 13, 2016, the victim was returning home on a bicycle from her grandfather’s house when the three accused stopped the girl and sexually assaulted her before murdering her.

A day later, police arrested three Dalit men in the case and booked them under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC sections related to murder. In November 2017, the Ahmednagar district and sessions court awarded death sentences to all three. In September last year, the main accused in the gangrape-murder case, allegedly died by suicide at Yerwada Central Prison in Pune. He is the cousin of the Dalit man who died by suicide last week.

The father of the Dalit man told The Indian Express, “We never supported our relative who got death sentence for the rape and murder of the minor girl. Still, my son, who worked as a peon at the gram panchayat office, lost his job. Those who are responsible for my son’s death are powerful people. The main accused (the brother of the minor who was raped and killed in 2016) is an influential person and walks around with a pistol.”

The father of the main accused in the suicide case says, “Owing to threats following my daughter’s death, my son got a gun licence from the government. It was never misused. We have good relations with all communities in the village,” he said.