The team talked to a cross section of people in the village, AIKMS activists who have taken up this issue, the police officials at Dinara police station
An independent investigation conducted by a voluntary group of academics, Janhastakshep, has unearthed a brutal assault on two youths belonging to the extremely backward caste category by village landlords in Rohtas district of Bihar, clearly pointing to the fact that caste-based oppression still exists in the state.
Taking cognisance of a video shot by All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), showing two youths from the Maha Dalit community being beaten up by powerful Kurmi landlords in broad daylight on January 29, a two-member team of Janhastakshep did an independent investigation in February this year.
The team comprising Prof Ish Mishra of Hindu College, Delhi University, and Dr Vikas Bajpai of the Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University visited the Nauva village and Sasaram and Dehri on Sone in Rohtas district on February 17 and 18 to investigate the entire incident.
The team talked to a cross section of people in the village, AIKMS activists who have taken up this issue, the police officials at Dinara police station, the police DIG (Sahabad range) in Dehri on Sone and the district magistrate in Sasaram.
The report says that when the two youths of Nauva village — Sunil Chauhan of the ‘nunia’ caste and Vijay Sharma of the ‘lohar‘ caste — demanded their wages from the landlord community, both were dragged out, made to take off their clothes and beaten up with iron rods and batons by landlord Ramashankar, his son Patali Chaudhary and other men in the family.
The report alleges that later, the landlord was helped by the panchayat sarpanch Imtiaz Ansari and the mukhia of the panchayat, Ramakant Shah, to sign a paper on which it was written that both Suresh and Vijay had admitted to having stolen the tractor’s battery.
“The sarpanch said that he had categorically refused to sign on the paper. However, he suggested that the mukhia was siding with the landlords,” the report says.
The report notes that the SHO’s attitude amounted to active connivance with the landlords and puts the government in the dock for choosing to go soft in the case since it wouldn’t like to offend the ‘kurmis’, who form an important social base of the Nitish Kumar-led government in the state.
Janhastakshep has demanded that the state government immediately bring the culprits to justice and strictest possible action be taken against the SHO of Dinara thana for active connivance in the commissioning of this crime. Besides forwarding a representation to the NHRC, it has also asked the state government to immediately announce adequate compensation for the victims’ families.
STRIPPED, BEATEN
A report by a voluntary group says that when the two youths of Nauva village — Sunil Chauhan of the ‘nunia’ caste and Vijay Sharma of the ‘lohar‘ caste — demanded their wages from the landlord community, both were dragged out, made to take off their clothes and beaten up with iron rods and batons by landlord Ramashankar, his son Patali Chaudhary and other men in the family.
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