Sixty-two Madhesi Dalits have been killed and 168 Dalit women have been raped in the past 40 months in the province.

Ajay Anuragi, Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal 

On August 16, 2020, Niranjan Ram, 20, from Garuda Municipality-8 in Rautahat district was killed. According to Gyan Kumar Mahato, deputy superintendent of police at the Garuda Area Police Office, Ram was killed as per Sheikh Azad’s plan. Police investigation showed that Sheikh Azad was accompanied by Ajay Kumar Ranjan, Vivek Rai Yadav, Arjun Ram, Sikandar Paswan and Vijay Mahara in the crime. However, the family of the victim did not believe the conclusion of the police investigation. According to Sonelal Ram, coordinator of the Rautahat Dalit Struggle Committee, the police have prepared a false narrative to save the real criminal in the case. 

“At first, the DSP told that the operator of the Sach Nursery had killed Niranjan. The DSP had asked us to file a complaint. However, when Nanda Lal Ram, the victim’s father, went to file a complaint against Raja Ram Sah Baniya and Lakhan Sah Baniya, among others, the police refused to register the complaint,” Sone Lal said. 

According to Lal, the police held Dalit activists Sangeeta Devi Ram, Nathu Ram Pariyar and Jit Bahadur Biswakarma in custody and beat them when they went to file the complaint on behalf of the victim’s family. They were released only after four hours. 

The victim, Ram, had been working at Sach Nursery for a monthly salary of Rs15,000 for two years. His family claimed that he had been killed when he had an altercation with Rajaram Sah Baniya, the owner of the nursery, on the matter of the salary. Nanda Lal, the father of the victim, said, “There had been many quarrels after our son was denied his salary. It was because of this that my son died.” 

Local Dalits began to gherao the police station when they realised the investigation was lackadaisical. When the protests took shape, the police finally registered a complaint against Lakhan Sah Baniya, Rajaran Sah Baniya and Rajgir Sah Baniya among others on August 20, 2020. 

According to Sushil Kumar Yadav, shrestedar of the Rautahat District Court, eight people, including a juvenile, were made defendants in the complaint. Out of the defendants, Sheikh Azad, Arjun Ram, and Ajay Kumar Ranjan were sent to the Gaur jail for investigation, on September 15, 2020.

Vivek Rai Yadav has been sent to juvenile custody whereas Rajaram Sah Baniya has been released on regular bail. The court has also released Rajgir Sah and Lakhan Sah on regular bail. Another defendant, Sikandar Paswan, has been undergoing treatment for mental health problems, which is why the court has not been able to record his statement yet. Arjun Ram and Ajay Kumar Ranjan have been released on deposit of Rs1 lakh each. Vivek Ram’s case is sub-judice in the court. 

Another crime

Bijaya Mahara

Police had arrested 11 people on August 16, 2020, right after Niranjan’s murder. But later, on August 19, they released Manoj Paswan, Chandan Mallik Kayastha and Prashant Yadav. According to advocate Raj Kumar Mahaseth, who is the coordinator of Advocacy Forum for Province Two, Manoj and Chandan told him that they had been beaten by police without an arrest warrant and forced them to confess murder. Vijay Mahara, one of the 11 people arrested by the police, died in custody. Mahara’s family claims that he had died of torture in the custody. 

The Dalit community became furious at the police after Mahara died in police custody when Niranjan Ram’s murder had not yet been solved. According to Sonelal, coordinator of the Dalit Struggle Committee, “We lost trust in the police because it could not conduct a fair investigation of the death of Dalits.”

When Vijaya became seriously ill in police custody, he was shifted to Anamika Hospital in Garuda. He was then referred to National Medical College in Birgunj on August 19. While Vijaya was in good health during the arrest, both his kidneys had stopped working by the time he was shifted to the hospital. Vijaya’s family alleges that his health had deteriorated due to torture by the police.

According to Province Two deputy superintendent of police Dhiraj Pratap Singh, “There is no truth in the claim that the man had died of torture by police. In fact, he had sustained injuries when there was a scuffle between the police and the locals when the police tried to nab him.” Mahara’s dialysis had also been conducted twice. 

Mahara himself had said he had been tortured in custody. A video of him speaking about the torture had done the rounds in social media. Mahara’s father, Panilal Mahara submitted a complaint at the Area Police Office Garuda against six people, but the complaint was not registered. 

Later, on September 6, the complaint was registered through the Government Lawyers’ Office. According to Subhash Kumar Bhattarai, attorney at the District Government Lawyers’ Office, the complaint was forwarded to the District Police Office but there has been no progress in the case. According to attorney Raj Kumar Mahaseth, “The state mechanism is the one that is the accused in cases where Dalits are to be provided with justice. And when they are not willing to conduct independent investigation and register complaints, how are Dalits expected to get justice?”

After pressure by the Dalits, the Ministry of Home Affairs on 11 Bhadra formed a three-member investigation committee under the coordination of Dorendra Niraula, under-secretary at the Area Administration Office, Chandranigahpur. Even before the committee completed its investigation, Area Police Office Garuda police inspector Nabin Kumar Singh, and police havildars Munna Singh, and Feroz Miya were suspended on 15 Bhadra for six months. 

The investigation showed that police officers had given extra-judicial torture to Bijaya Mahara, and he had succumbed to his injuries. The police officers were suspended due to this reason,” said coordinator Niraula. The investigation committee submitted its report to the Ministry of Home Affairs on September 17. 

According to Siddhi Vikram Shah, superintendent of police at District Police Office, Rautahat, the police officers who have been suspended are on the run at the moment. Shah said the fugitives had been sent a letter, and that they would be suspended if they did not return within the stipulated deadline.

It has been four months since Niranjan Ram and Bijaya Mahara died. But the representatives at the Garuda Municipality have maintained steely silence all along. According to Rengeela Kumari Jaiswal, deputy mayor at the municipality, “We have been demanding that the culprits of crimes against Dalits should be brought to the book. But the Dalits have not been able to get justice.”

Complaints against elected representatives

Shambhu Sada

Of late, the incidents of caste atrocities are not limited to Garuda alone. Shambhu Sada, who was arrested in the course of an investigation, was found hanging in the toilet of a detention centre. The situation worsened thereafter. A resident of Sabaila Municipality 12, Sada, 22, was arrested in regard to a fatal road accident after the tractor he was driving killed 45-year-old Sumitra Devi Sah and injured Sita Kumari Sah. 

Sada’s mother, Siyali Devi, believes her son was killed by the police before being hanged. “My son had told me that the police were threatening to kill him if he didn’t pay them a bribe. He was killed days later,” Siyali Devi said. 

However, Makendra Mishra, deputy superintendent of police at District Police Office  Dhanusha, said Sada had committed suicide. District Police Office superintendent of police Ramesh Kumar Basnet said the viscera test conducted to check whether Sada had consumed poison came out negative.

Siyali Devi said her attempts to file a complaint against Sabaila Regional Police Off police inspector Chandra Bhushan Yadav and a local people’s representative who had signed the crime scene report were obstructed by the District Police Office. “My repeated attempts to file a complaint went in vain. How will I get justice now?” Asked Siyali Devi. 

When District Police Office Dhanusha refused to register the complaint, she filed a complaint at the Government Lawyers’ Office. District attorney Sitaram Aryal said the complaint was forwarded to the District Police Office the same day. Basnet, the superintendent of police, said the investigation was ongoing although no one mentioned in the complaint had been arrested. 

Sixty-two Dalits killed

Mintra Devi Baitha, 35, a resident of Gadhimai Municipality-3 Musahar Tole, was killed on August 30, 2020. He is said to have been killed for revenge after he bought the land of Jamsed Miya that had been auctioned by a bank. “He had been threatened that he would be murdered 15 days before he was killed,” said Bharat Shrestha, deputy superintendent of police at the District Police Office, Rautahat. 

After the crime, Jamsed Miya, 40, Daud Miya, 32, Jaharuddin Miya, 32, and Mohammad Isaraful Miya, 40, have been arrested and sent to Gaur Jail as per the order of the Rautahat District Court.

According to statistics provided by the Province Two Police Office, 62 Dalits have been killed in the past 40 months in the eight districts of the province, and 168 Dalit women have been raped (see table).

The most dangerous district within the province is Dhanusha, where 16 Dalits have been killed in the 40-month period, whereas 12 Dalits have been killed in Sarlahi. Dhanusha ranks top among the districts where Dalit women are raped, with 41 cases of rape during the period. 

Children targeted

The forms of violence against Dalits in Province Two are varied, as they include killing, rape, beating, and untouchability. A 17-year-old mentally challenged woman from Balan Bihul rural municipality was raped by three men when she stepped out of her home to go to the toilet. The victim’s family has filed a complaint against three men, claiming that the accused had even beaten up the girl when she resisted the rape. The accused are on the run even now.

Bodebarsian Municipality deputy mayor Ranju Kuimari Sah Teli said Dalit women and girls had become the victims of violence in the municipality. “The cases of violence against Dalits do not come to the judicial committee, which is why we are not able to do much although the cases of violence are rising,” Sah Teli said.

Although the Constitution of Nepal has put a ban on untouchability, it has not come down in Madhes. Caste atrocities against Dalits are quite high in Madhes after the 2017 local elections. Although Dalits are killed and raped due to caste discrimination, the police and judicial committees have not taken the complaints seriously. “It is only we intervene that the police register the complaints of caste discrimination and untouchability,” said Bir Bahadur Budha Magar, Provincial Office chief of the National Human Rights Commission.

In several other cases, the victims have no access to justice due to lack of resources. According to Namita Yadav, deputy mayor at the Siraha Municipality, “People’s representatives have not been able to give much attention to issues other than Covid-19, which is why the cases of caste atrocities have been rising in Madhes.”

Despite the rising cases of violence against Dalits, the access of victims to the police and the judiciary remain limited. In Province Two, 13 cases of untouchability have been registered in the past three years. According to the Province Police Office, three cases of untouchability had been registered in Sarlahi and one each in Mahottari and Siraha in the fiscal year 2074/75. In 2075/76, two cases each had been filed in Bara and Sarlahi, and one each in Mahottari and Siraha. In 2019/20, one case each had been filed in Mahottari and Siraha.

According to Raju Paswan, Province Two coordinator of the human rights organisation INSEC, the forms of discrimination and untouchability have changed nowadays. “Nowadays, the discrimination is more subtle than in previous years. However, Dalits still lack access to justice,” Paswan said, adding that Province Two had become insecure for Dalits. The situation, Paswan said, is worse than in Kathmandu as the state continues to overlook the issue. 

Provincial and local governments inefficient

Apart from the local governments, the provincial government is also equally efficient when it comes to stopping violence against Dalits. “Justice is inaccessible in cases of violence against Dalits. The police do not take complaints, and even when they do, it facilitates out-of-court settlement, which leads to even more violence. The silence of the provincial government is pretty depressing,” said Sundar Bahadur Biswakarma, a member of the provincial government.

The provincial government issued the Dalit Empowerment Act on 24 Kartik 2076, but the violence against Dalits has not come down even after that. According to Nabal Kishor Sah Sudi, minister of social development, “The Act has been introduced as the empowerment of Dalits is the priority of the provincial government. But the government has failed to focus on it due to Covid-19.”

The cases of caste atrocities did not come down even during the pandemic. According to advocate Raj Kumar Mahaseth, “Although the mechanisms of the state have worked effectively in cases of caste atrocities, there are several instances of police, local people’s representatives and influential people facilitating out-of-court settlement.”

According to Sitaram Aryal, district attorney at the District Government Lawyers’ Office Dhanusha, the state should punish the people who facilitate out-of-court settlement even in criminal cases. It is because of the lack of such punishment that the incidents continue to rise. “The state must apply the existing laws effectively,” Aryal said, adding that the cases can come down only if the victims begin to seek justice from higher level institutions if they don’t get justice from the lower level ones. 

Gyanendra Yadav, minister of internal affairs and law for Province Two, conceded that the cases of violence against Dalits had risen in recent times. He said the government had prepared a strategic plan for reducing violence, but that it had yet to be implemented, leading to rising cases of caste atrocities. “The provincial government has not come under the provincial government yet, which is why we are only allowed to coordinate rather than give orders. It is because the police of the federal government has filed fake cases and let go of criminals that the violence against Dalits has continued to rise,” Yadav added.

Table: 62 killings, and 168 rapes

Source: Province Two Police Office, Janakpurdham