Two decades and eight death sentences later,a village remains defiant

But nothing seems to have changed on the ground in Mehrana. The Dalits still live in fear,marriages in the last two decades have all been arranged,and the families of the perpetrators of the crime remain defiant,unrepentant.

Rama Devi,Vijendra’s sister-in-law who now lives in the house where he grew up,said she is known in the village as the relative of that “ashleel launda (characterless boy)”.

“I was married into this family ten years after the incident. But I still carry that image. Only my sons and I live here,everyone else in the family has left. After we got news of the verdict yesterday,I told my children to stay put in the Jatav part of the village. I am afraid something will happen to them. There is still so much anger,” she said.

Phuli Devi,also a Jatav,cannot shut out memories of the murder even two decades later. As a 30-year-old in 1991,she hid in a broken hut near the tree from which the couple and their friend were hanged.

“Roshni and Vijendra ran away from the village. They returned three days later to attend the last rites of a woman. The day they came back,a panchayat was called in the evening. They were beaten mercilessly and hanged from a tree next to the Shiv Mandir. Later,their bodies were brought down and burnt,” Phuli Devi recalled.

“After they were beaten,the three started pleading and asked for water. I remember some of the Jats urinated on their faces. Even on Ram Kishan who was only a friend,” she said.

In the eyes of the village elders,Ram Kishan,who had helped the couple elope,was as guilty as Roshni and Vijendra.

On the Jat side of the village — the prosperous section where there are concrete houses,unlike the ramshackle huts of the Jatavs — people remain defiant.

While 35 men of the community are now in a Mathura jail,including Roshni’s father Ganga Ram,the others still believe that the killings were done to “uphold honour”.

Sevak Singh,brother of Tej Singh who has been sentenced to death,said: “It does not matter if Roshni was a woman of our family. She defiled herself by being in a relationship with him. She showed us disrespect. Even when the panchayat called them,she had the cheek to to say that she wanted to live with Vijendra. I was too young,only 13,otherwise I too would have beaten them to protect the pride of my family. But I am proud of my brother.”

Public Prosecutor Shiv Shankar said the family of the two Dalit men — Vijendra and Ram Kishan — used to attend case hearings during the first few years of the trial but had not made an appearance for more than six years.

“In that time,we made repeated attempts to contact the family,including Ram Kishan’s uncle Ami Chand who had filed the FIR. But they have not responded. Once we met Vijendra’s brother who asked us to leave him alone since his life was in danger. But the case continued on the basis of the accounts of witnesses taken earlier. In the larger scheme of things,justice has been done,” Shiv Shankar said.

But far from providing a sense of relief and closure,Dalits in the village said the verdict had opened old wounds. Many intend to move out of the village for a while.

“When it happened,more than a hundred Jatavs like me moved away. I will wait and watch for a few days. I might go if something happens. For 20 years,there has been peace. When they tell us anything,we listen,go about our business and keep to ourselves. I had told my children not to associate with the bhaiyalog and there was calm. But now we live in fear again,” Phuli Devi said.