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Journalism of Courage
In a village far away from the national discussions on the need of an act to protect witnesses, two young men who refused to turn hostile in the court were hacked to death.
Two lower-caste youth, who were witness to the gruesome murder of three women of a family by a mob in September 2004, were waylaid and lynched by a mob in Khapa Katheda village of Betul district. Shyam and Bali, belonging to Angri Lohar community, were killed less than three km from their village where police were deployed to maintain peace, on Tuesday. They were returning home after making purchases from a weekly market on a two-wheeler. A Lohar youth, who was on another motorcycle, watched the crime from some distance and named 33 villagers.
The villagers were angry with them because they did not change their statements during court proceedings on June 6 and identified the accused in the 2004 crime. ‘‘The villagers thought they had succeeded in striking a compromise with the Lohar community but took the law in their hands when they felt they were betrayed in the court,’’ Betul SP Vijay Suryavanshi told The Indian Express.
There are 46 accused in the 2004 incident, while 40 are behind bars, four are out on bail and two absconding. Three women were killed when a mob, returning after immersing Ganesh idols on September 24, set on fire a cluster of houses and did not allow the occupants to escape.
Suryavanshi said almost all men belonging to Kunbi, Rathod and Pawar castes had fled the village after the crime and the Lohar community had been provided protection. He said several complaints had been filed against the men of the Lohar community ‘‘who terrorised others and indulged in petty crimes.’’
The Lohar community with 40 members left the village after the 2004 crime and lived in Betul, about 40 km away, for nearly a year. The locals protested and petitioned the district administration to move them. The community was forced to return to Khapa Katehda in November 2005 when residents of four other villages, where they had been offered accommodation by the administration, refused to let them stay. The administration was not keen on letting them return but relented when Akhil Bharatiya Lohar Samaj threatened to move court saying their fundamental rights were being violated.
Anurag Modi of Shramik Adivasi Sangathan alleged that the entire village and the administration had ganged up against the Lohar community. ‘‘Despite losing five members of their community they are being treated as criminals,’’ said Modi and added that the region was witnessing a disturbing trend of violence by upper-caste villagers.
