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Journalism of Courage
AHMEDNAGAR, JANUARY 21: It was one long night of horror that the people of Kothewadi village in Ahmednagar district won’t forget for some time. On the night of January 16, dacoits descended on this village in Pathardi tehsil and looted and raped its residents for around five hours before riding off.
Women and children were tortured, young girls molested, the few men present in the village thrashed. And it took IT-savvy Maharashtra more than 48 hours to learn about the trauma this sugar cutters-dominated village of around 400 underwent that night.
Though the dacoity was reported to the police on Wednesday itself, the horror is surfacing only now as shattered victims break their silence. Kothewadi hasn’t had electricity for the past month. Most men in the village are employed as sugarcane workers and had left for their jobs, leaving the elders, women and children behind.
The dacoits descended on the village around 11 pm on January 16. They grabbed hold of three persons who were sleeping in a temple and sought the addresses of the weathly people in the village. Changdev Hari Kothe, Parmeshwar Bhima Kothe and Kantilal Ramrao Kakade were beaten up with sticks and iron bars when they refused to respond. Giving in, the battered lot pointed out to the house of grampanchayat member Murlidhar Kothe.
Kothe wasn’t at home. The dacoits broke the door with a stone and beat up his wife Asrabai and her three children. They looted valuables worth Rs 12,200, and moved to a nearby house, where they raped a woman. Seventy-year-old Zhungabai Chitale was also beaten up.
“They were not just dacoits, they acted like demons. Now after losing everything, what do we say,” an elderly woman said. In another house, a woman was dragged by her feet in front of her husband and then raped. The dacoits then proceeded to beat up her children and loot her valuables.
Other women who were beaten up include Venubai Changdev Kothe, Bhimabai Gunaji Kothe, Deubai Bhanudas Kothe and 70-year-old Bhanudas Kothe, whose hand still bears the injuries.
Hearing the screams of the women and children, some women residing in the northern end of the village ran towards an old wada. But the dacoits tracked them down there, and allegedly beat up the women and burnt their clothes.
Nearly 50 persons in all were beaten up by the dacoits before they left by 4 a.m. They took away valuables worth around Rs one lakh, the villagers said.
In all, three rape victims have filed complaints with the police after the visit of the district collector and DIG (Nashik range). On Sunday, a woman officer was deputed to probe into the dacoity and rapes.
