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The police came to steal..the women in the way got raped

Geographical Background

Dhar is a district in the Malwa region in the western part of

Madhya Pradesh. With over 12.2 lakhs tribal population as

per 2011 census, it is the district with the highest adivasi

population in the state. Of this, Bhils (including Bhilala,

Barelas and Patelias) constitute over 98%.

There are 8 tehsils in Dhar, of which Sardarpur, Dhar,

Kukshi, Dharampuri, Gandhwani and Manawartahsil are

recognized as Scheduled Areas.

Bhutiya and Holibayda Villages

The villages reporting the incident of sexual assault and loot by police forces are Holibayda and

Bhutiya. They fall in Holibayda Gram Panchayat which covers three villages – Holibayda,

Bhutiya and Indla. While the first two villages are 100 percent Bhil, Indla has a Bhilala

population.

The data given in the table below shows the vulnerability of these two villages. The team saw

electricity poles in Bhutiya, but electric cables have not yet been laid and electricity still remains

awaited in this village which is otherwise quite on the main road. Holibayda is further on the

kutchcha route and nallahs have to be crossed to access areas.

Bhutiya has six hamlets, and Holibayda has four hamlets. As commonly found among Bhils, the

village is widely spread out with a spattering of houses between fields.

Holibayda Bhutiya District - Dhar State – M.P.

No. of Households 115 109 423,324 15019706

Population

(Family Size)

659

(5.73)

750

(6.88)

21,85,793

(5.16)

726,26,809

(4.83)

Children (0-6)

(% 0-6 age group to

total population)

197

(29.89%)

184

(24.5%)

359,949

(16.46%)

108,09,395

(14.88%)

Literacy 13.5%

(89-literate)

28.4%

(213 – literate)

59% 69.32%

Scheduled Tribes 100% 100% 56% 21.09%

Source: District Census Handbook: Dhar, Censes, 2011

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Livelihood

The village depends on agricultural produce for survival and many also migrate as agricultural

labour. They take out two or three crops. Soyabean is cultivated for the market. But corn, wheat

and tuardaal are for personal consumption.

Majority of the families have one or two family members migrating to Gujarat for various kinds

of work. It is only those who have a lot of irrigated land or where there is a single man in the

house or small children that stay back at the village.

As a young man who had come home for Holi said that there is nothing to do here. Another

middle-aged lady said that we have to survive anyhow. If you are born, you have to survive. We

do all that we can to feed our children and our stomachs.

In Gujarat, they work in fields, spinning mills and some have got small jobs as drivers. Many

work as agricultural labour in the peanut fields. They go for long periods stretching into months.

Education

The villagers of Bhutiya boast of a primary school till class 5 but the teacher is not regular.

Holibayda has two dilapidated building structures for a one room school structure. While the

older structure has been long abandoned, even the recently constructed structure for the school is

not used as the guest teacher doesn’t come for weeks and remains locked. It was clear on a

Thursday morning that all the children, girls and boys of varying ages, were helping their

mothers in the field or had taken the cattle for grazing.

The two villages have one graduate who is the Sarpanch. There are a handful of boys who have

studied till 8th

– 10th

. The education of children has been possible only by living in hostels.

The community was clear that if a teacher would come and teach, our children would study.

Some parents have sent their kids to school in their maternal villages if there is a functional

school there. Others have taken their kids with them to Gujarat and enrolled children there in

schools.

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Description of the incident of 25th

January, 2017

In the early hours of 25th

January, the villagers described to the team that a large number of

police clamped down on the village from all sides. The villagers informed that many police

motorcycles as well as a pick-up van came into the hamlets from different sides. There would be

more than 30 vehicles that would have landed into the area. The specific hamlets of Peeparpara,

Patelpara and Schoolpara of Bhutiya village, and Chauhanpura and Mehendiphaliya of

Holibayda have suffered the maximum losses.

The police fired in the air and opened up tear-gas. While in a way they allowed the men to run

away, the women were left to defend the houses and their goods. As the police approached near

the houses, they also fired into ground, where women and children were standing. Many women

also abandoned their houses and ran for their lives, but for those with children and small infants

it was difficult.. In Chauhanpura, as the police surrounded the hamlets, from all sides, men fled

and women rushed to the Anganwadi Worker’s house as she and her husband have a basic

rapport with local police officials and they felt she could save them. It was the older or the sick

that got left behind and faced the police wrath.

Some women also voiced to the team that they were in a way making people run. Women who

were found in ones or twos were sexually assaulted. Young infants in their laps were also not

spared from the violence unleashed in the hamlet.

Sexual Assault

The villagers informed that four women have been raped, and five others have complained of

sexual assault. The team met three rape survivors and three of the women who had been

molested, when we reached the village uninformed. Three of the affected women could not be

met as they were out in the fields for wheat harvesting.

Survivor 1 – She has been married for less than a year and was visibly (about 6 months) pregnant

in January, when she was raped. As she pleaded with the police not to plunder and break her

house, one of them pulled her inside by her hand. One stood on the door while one raped her

inside the room. She hit out at him and screamed but to no avail.

“He (the rapist) should be punished. Do you think I feel good about what happened to me? No

liquor bottles were taken from my house. I hit them a lot and screamed. But who could have

come to help me. After the police left, the Sarpanch called the Vidhayak. On the same day, he

took us to Dhar. I am not literate, so I told the police everything and they wrote it down.”

Survivor 2 - lives alone with her small infant as her husband is already in jail (she believes he

has been falsely framed as he had started working as a watchman when he was detained). She

voiced that there was no need for the police to have invaded her house when there was no man.

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“A policeman came inside and dropped my two-month old son on the ground. We were both

crying. He took my silver chain and 20,000

rupees that I had earned from selling soya

beans. He pushed me down there (gesturing to

near the cooking place) and raped me. One

policeman finished and the next one came in

and raped me. Do pulis ne mere izzat loot li.

The policeman threatened me not to talk or that

they’ll shoot me. They were drinking. I begged

them, crying, saying please don’t do this. I

couldn’t believe that they were police. After

they left, I went to see my brother, and saw my

sister-in-law crying. She had also been raped like me.”

Survivor 3 - is a middle aged lady, about 50 years old, living with less than the most basic

facilities in her house. She was in one part of the house but rushed to the school building which

is adjoining her house wall as she had stored her corn and precious money in that part. It was

here that she was attacked. Referring to herself as an old woman, she said that she pleaded with

the police to not take away her daughter’s things that she had put together during her recent

marriage. But they didn’t believe her and shoved her aside. As they pushed her on her chest, she

fell on the ground. They beat her up and when one began to rape her, the other went and stood

outside on the door.

The lady pleaded that it has been 25 years and she doesn’t indulge in even the small things of

eating a chicken and survives with just roti-mirchi, but her words brought no sympathy in the

perpetrator. Today, she continues to be in pain when she goes to urinate.

Survivor 4- Her sister-in-law and she shared that when the police came to their village, the two

younger women could not escape as the bhabhi was not well and was lying in the khat.Two of

the police forced their way in and one groped her breasts and pushed her down on the khat. She

managed to get up and escape.

Survivor 5 – is a minor, about 16 – 17 years old. She had returned from Gujarat only a day

earlier, with savings of her whole year. There were four policemen who came to her house, after

her father had fled, leaving her alone. One of them sexually assaulted her by touching her on her

arms and breasts. She bravely told him “Don’t do this to me.” This did stop the police to some

extent, but they continued to loot the house.

Survivor 6– is a young mother of 5 children. She shared that only the very young ones were left

in the small settlement, everyone else who could ran, so there was no one to help. Some of the

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police men clambered up the rooftop. When she protested, they responded that ‘you speak too

much’ and pounced on her. There were so many of them that she fainted while they sexually

assaulted her. She had gone to the local thana to complain and had also gone to Dhar but turned

back because her children were not well. She shared that everywhere, the women were not being

allowed to speak.

Some of the women could describe their perpetrator. In Chauhanpura, the survivor said he was a

tall and big-built dark-complexioned man. Saving one or two of them, most of them also said

that they would be able to identify the men who had attacked them.

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Theft and pillage and plunder

Police chori karke le gaee hamara samaan

“They took my full one-year of earnings . They even took rotis from the house!”

People said that when they came back, they found their houses in a mess. Where even women

were present in the houses also, nothing was spared. Things were broken and scattered

everywhere.Many houses have been looted and plundered in a vicious way.

Rations and seeds that were found in sacks were looted. And what could not be taken if it was in

big trunks or traditional containers, was spoilt by throwing pesticide into it. It was only in one or

two houses that corn that was in the traditional bamboo container was not destroyed.

Cash has been stolen from people’s houses. Most people have lost amounts varying from Rs.

10,000 to 40,000. As soyabean had been recently cut after Diwali, a big chunk was sold and

another part had been kept at home for sowing. With no bank accounts, people have stored this

money inside small bags in their grain. The police rummaged through it and took people’s only

big earnings which carried them through the year. Two sisters had just come back from Gujarat,

laboring in the agricultural fields there, and had brought their earnings home for the family,

which was lost in one wipe.

Utensils have been broken and destroyed, rendering them useless. Khats and chairs have been

slashed.

Agricultural implements – axe, sickle, plough – have been taken. People said that these were

picked up every few months when the police came to the area, and did not find anything unusual

in this to report.

Destruction of house property - The police clambered up the roof and broke earthen tiles. Hitting

the walls with a kulhari and the roof with a dangi seemed to be the common way they destructed

property. Thus windows have been broken, house walls have cracked as they are made of mud.

Traditional music instruments were cut open.

The drums in the house were slashed and cut open. Our people (Bhils) use these drums during

the upcoming Bhagoriya festival. What can one do?

Silver jewellery worn by women or kept in the house was stolen.

When they were firing everywhere, how could we have stayed home..to die? We all ran. And they

came and stole our goods. I had kept my jewellery in the grain; the police took that too. I had

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one bangle, two necklaces, one tagli, one kandoor, one sindhoor- they took all of that and the

money I had – Rs. 350.

Anything of value, as oil cans or cellphones, found in the house has been picked up.

I had gone to Gujarat to work in peanut fields. I got 8 litres of peanut oil from there and they

took it with them.

Ration Cards - It was reported that in one particular hamlet, Chauhanpura, the police seized all

the documents they laid their hands on. Bags were searched and precious documents as ration

cards and aadhar cards have been taken from each house.

(on asking how their documents got taken and if the family member had taken them out to show

to the police) We weren’t even in the house. All our bags were strewn and papers taken. Now

how will be take our rations; they have taken our ration cards also. How much money is spent in

making one small document also.

Machinery that would be found in any village, as water pumps to draw water from the river, and

electricity generators that run on diesel have been taken. The police have claimed a seizure of 2

tractors (one bought three months previously on Dhanteras by Heeru s/o Harya Bhil and another

brought on rent for wheat harvesting by..), 13 motorbikes, 4 water pumps and 4 electricity

generators.

She offered the 4 policemen the khat to sit and pleaded, “Sir, we need to go to till Tanda often.

How will the old man go 7-8 kilometres everyday? Please don’t take our bike. The policeman

said, “It is Bade Sahab’s orders; he is not agreeing. We have to take it.”

The police loaded a villager’s trolley with all the things they had stolen and seized from the

village and used the tractors to take it away.

Even a month later, when the team visited the village, people seemed quite at a loss. People don’t

have resources leftand are waiting to get their life back together through some support. It is

probably the first time that this kind of repression has been unleashed on them, and also at this

scale, impacting majority of them.

While some have begun to repair part of the house, what to repair and how to go about it seems

to be a challenge for many. They have begun to tend back to their fields as wheat is ready for

harvest.

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Kind of damage caused to property in Bhutiya and Holibayda during the raid on 25.01.2017

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Some of the theft that could be documented during the day’s visit is as follows -

Name, village Property stolen Property destroyed Jagan,

Bhutiya

Rs. 35,000 cash

Sickle (darata), Axe (kulhari)

8 litres of peanut oil

10 liters of kerosene oil

two cellphones

Medicine sprayed in the

aata (about 25 kg)

Medicine put in corn

(3-4 qunitals)

Bed peti – broken

Heeru,

Bhutiya

Rs. 40,000 cash

1 tractor

1 bike

Sickle (darati)

8 quintals soyabean

5 hens

Nanda Bai, ,

Chauhanpura,

Holibayda

Rs. 25,000 cash

2 bikes

1 tractor (that had been brought on rent)

Sickle (darata)

2 quintals peanuts

6 quintals soyabean

5 hens

Damaged the house

walls, roof, windows

Slashed the drums

Slashed and cut through

3 plastic chairs

Khaat

Noorla 3 quintals soyabean

16 hens

Damaged the house

Eedu Bai,

Holibayda

Rs. 15,000 cash

Barsati worth Rs. 2000

30 litres diesel

Paana, Daatla, Kulhari

50 hands rope

Diesel Pump

Utensils destroyed

Noor Bai,

Holibayda

Rs. 350 cash

Silver ornaments of neck, ears, bangles taken

House damaged

Anaj destroyed

Lal Bai Rs. 20,000 cash Corn destroyed

Sur Bai,

Holibayda

1 bike

Saiku 1 bike

Darati

Narad Chhagan 5 hens

Anaj

House damaged

Cow dung thrown in

the anaj

Broke the medicine

spraying pump

Guru 1 water pump

Rangan Vessels crushed and

Roof broken

Bhuru, Bhutiya 3 goats, 1 was killed. 15 chickens House broken

Vessels crushed or

damaged

Chamaria Trolley

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Arrest of one woman

Resham Bai w/o Heeru was arrested that day. She was at home with her 2 year old son, and was

picked up on charges of selling alcohol illegally. She was kept at Tanda Police Station on the

night of January 25th

, and sent to judicial remand the following day. It has taken her husband

three weeks to get her out on bail, on the 17th

of February.

Surviving in a zone of suspicion and under constant threat

All the villagers the team interacted with, men and women, said that this is the first time that the

police has come and ransacked the village and attacked women at this scale. However, it is

common that every few months, the police would take a round and pick up things that were lying

around (usually agricultural implements) outside.

The police here is also like us..dependent on farming. They take what they need.

There is also a fear that young men would be picked up and detained in the police lock-ups for

days. It is also for this reason that men don’t stay around in the village. There is no work unless

people have very big land-holdings and there is no school, plus the constant threat of the police

picking them up.

Yahan karne ko bhi kya.. ek maheena raho to police le jaati hai

It was reported that it was common for men to be picked up while outside the village and hence

they usually do not go to the market. The team met one man who had been detained for 3 days.

Illegal detentions spreading into 40 days were also reported. Heavy amounts running into 30,000

to a lakh are extorted for a release, or at times, the price for an assurance that they would not be

beaten.

There are instances where men have not returned home and it is heard that they are in a jail in

another part of the country. Women are not even able to recognize or identify the place where

their husband may be lodged and families wait for them to come back when they will. Absence

of support systems in these places make it very difficult for this community to link up with

lawyers, seek justice or legal aid for their families. One woman reported that her husband is in a

jail in a place which she could not properly pronounce, and it was confirmed by the Sarpanch

that he is assumedly in some jail in Karnataka. Another man is in a jail in Gujarat, but the family

had no contact with him. In these cases, people don’t know the charges and it is often through

their acquaintance that they hear that he has been picked up by the police.

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Custodial deaths

On posing the question of whether anyone has died due to police violence, the villagers’

reactions showed that they did not find anything unusual or surprising about the phenomenon of

custodial deaths.

As many of the present we met were younger men, they had heard about it or it was part of their

memory as young kids. They were able to share details of three such murders but also shared that

there have been more deaths which the other elders would be able to share.

i) Kaalcheeaa s/o Parukh – was about 35 years old. Was beaten up for about a month in

Sardarpura Thana and went to jail from there and died subsequently. This happened

about15 years back.

ii) Bheru – had gone to sell firewood in the bazaar when the police caught him enroute and

shot him dead. His body was not returned to the villagers. This happened about 10-12

years back.

iii) Kishan s/o Ketu died in Sardarpur Thana about 10 years back.

Villagers also informed that in nearby village of Jamda, a woman had died when she had drank

water from a matka where the police had put poison in during a similar raid in the past year. This

could not be cross-checked as the team could not visit this village.

Action taken

On the same day of the incident (i.e. 25.01/17), the women approached the Sarpanch after the

police had left. A young man of their community, the Sarpanch’s family has also been affected in

this incident. He called up the MLA, Umang Singhar of the area, for his help.

The villagers first approached Tanda Police Station which refused to write their complaint. They

then moved to the district headquarters, Dhar. The MLA led the crowd of angry villagers and the

affected women to the District Hospital also demanding for a medical examination to be done by

a panel of doctors the same day. A panel of doctors did not come, but the Medical Doctor carried

out a medical on the rape survivors. (Derived from interview with the medical doctor on duty

and application quoted in the FIR and people’s testimonies)

In her telephonic interview to the team, the doctor informed that she was quite hassled with the

big number of people who had come with the women. She carried out the medical examination

even though a medico-legal case had still not be made out, and submitted the vaginal swabs to

the local police chowki at the hospital. She clarified that she did not take the clothes the women

were wearing as evidence as the women did not have anything else to change into.

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The next day, on 26.1.17, they pushed for a complaint to be filed at the Anusuchit Jati Kalyan

(AJK) Thana. They could get only a receiving of the two complaints submitted– one regarding

the rapes and the other on the loot and damage.

It was only on January 30th

, five days later, that the FIR regarding rape was registered, (FIR No.

001 dtd. 30.1.17 at AJK, Dhar). Section regarding gang-rape i.e. Section 376 (D) of IPC has been

applied but the details of the accused has been specified as ‘Unknown’ even when the body of

the application clearly specifies the perpetrators as the police who had come to raid the village on

the 25th

of January 2017. (reference: copy of the FIR)

The women shared to the team that some of them traveled to Bhopal and went onwards to Delhi

for registering their complaints with different agencies, as facilitated and guided by their MLA.

A complaint has been submitted to the State Women’s Commission. (reference: Times of India,

31.1.17). The women have approached the NHRC through the support of the MLA and an

NHRC team had also visited the area on 15.2.17. (refer: DainikBhaskar, Dhar dtd. 16.2.17)

It is only after a month that testimonies under Section 164 were taken in front of the JFMC, Dhar

on the 4.3.2017.

Meanwhile, an application filed in the Indore Bench of the High Court for filing a case against

the 200 plus policemen involved in the raid on 25th

January for violations of theft, loot and

sexual assault, was dismissed on March 2nd

2017. (refer: Dainik Bhaskar, Indore dtd. 3.3.17)

Meeting with the Police Functionaries

The team met police functionaries at the local thana, Tanda Police Station. Part of the team also

met SP Dhar the next day. The team has tried to take an appointment with Anjana Tiwari, SP

Fire Brigade Indore, who is heading the Special Investigation Team investigating the matter, but

repeated efforts have not yielded a response.

Responses of the police on specific aspects of the case have been mentioned here.

Police involved in the ambush

Newspapers have reported and it was confirmed by the police functionaries that a huge

contingent had gone to the village. The SP informed the team that two parties of 220 police

personnel had been involved in the operation. The team was headed by 2 Additional SPs. Two

SDOPs and police from 13 different police stations including Thana in Charges of these police

stations, specifically named included TIs of Tanda, Gandhwani, Bagh, Manawar, Sardarpur,

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Amjhera, Baghdun, Sector 1) were part of the forces that invaded the village. SDG forces had

also been sent. This includes 2 women police officials who are also reported to have been present.

It was also asked that how come such a big posse of police was deputed to a village just one day

prior to Republic Day to which the constable at Tanda Police Station did not have a reply and

said that instructions had come from the top to go to the village so we have to follow orders.

Purpose of the operations

At both the levels, the police officers informed that they had gone in these big numbers as it was

usually difficult to arrest people of these villages. They also confirmed that whenever they go to

these specific villages, it is in a large number because the people retaliate, and cases are also

usually not a matter of only the local police. The SP also told the team that they had gone in

search of 143 people and there were warrants against these.

The police showed the team two lists pointing to the incidence of crime in the area and justified

their declaring these areas as hubs of criminal activity. These lists were (i) of 143 entries

showing warrants issued from three villages of Jamda, Bhutiya and Holibayda and (ii) of 178

entries from a cluster of villages including these three.

We could not get a copy of these lists but a cursory glance showed that 143 entries does not

imply warrants against 143 individuals as names are often repeated in one crime after the other.

It was also noticed that crimes dating back to 1995 had been typed out, and the last crime

reported was of 26.11.2016.

The Sarpanch had shared that there were about 20 people in this list on whom there are warrants,

and they were all not from one village. The number of 143 is being put forth to make the issue

much bigger than it is and brand the village. He felt that there are as many anti-social elements

here as in any village. Other women had also voiced that if there was a warrant, they should have

gone to the specific man’s house and why was the whole village attacked.

A newspaper report further shows that 4 of those in the list that the police has been quoting are

already in jail and one person has died long back. (refer: Hari Bhumi, Bhopal dtd. 31.1.17)

Kinds of offenses

The local police repeatedly said that these people are criminals and it is not safe to be in their

area. There are many FIRs against them. On probing as to what kinds of crime, they are involved

in. Initially, the police constable was evasive and said loot etc. It took a bit of persuasion when

he said that they steal cattle and cut up the buffalo and eat before a crime can be reported.

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The SP mentioned that the offenses were regarding illegal sale of alcohol and registered under

the Excise Act. He added that the people are involved in bike thefts, and that is why there were

so many bikes in a village. While the team has no grounds to comment on bike thefts, the SP’s

allegations should be seen in the proper context that factually, in two villages with over 200

households, 13 bikes being found is definitely not an obnoxious proportion and many people had

documents to prove ownership of the bikes (scanned copies attached with the report). The SP

also informed that they had FIRs against 4 vehicles only. He alleged that the villagers used bikes

without number plates so that they are not easily identified.

The SP further added that three police officers have been killed by the villagers in the past, and

stoned at times. But no specific FIR in this regard could be shown. It was also alleged that the

villagers keep rifles in their homes, however on questioning the SP, he admitted that no rifles had

been found in their homes.

Crimes registered post the raid

One woman was arrested during the raid on charges of illegal sale of alcohol. On the next day, an

FIR was registered (FIR No. 16 date 26.01.2017 at 15:52 hours at Tanda P.S.) regarding injury

of 7 police men. Charges have been framed under Section 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter

public servant from discharge of his duty) and Section 147, 148 (Rioting) and Section 34 (Acts done

by several persons in furtherance of common intention) under IPC (as shown in a report by the SP).

The names of the Police personnel registering the FIR as injured include 1) Aseem Bhuria,

SDOP kukshi 2) Mrs .Priyanka Dudve 3) Rajendra Narvariya ASI ,4) Nayak R. Karmendra,

Head Constable ,5) Bhoom Singh, Constable and 6) Hare Singh.

The villagers against whom the FIR has been lodged are 1) Bovaniya s/o Thakur Bhil, 2) Bhuran

s/o Thakur Bhil, 3) Bhama s/o Rangan Bhil, 4) Biriya s/o Nahar Singh, 5) Rangan s/o Dhuvaan,

6) Taar Singh s/o Kuwar Singh, 7) Faquaria s/o Golu, 8) Bhangra s/o Chhagan and others.

It should be noted that this FIR has been filed after the villagers tried to put in their complaints at

the Tanda Police Station on the previous day, and then again in the morning on 26.1.17.

Discrimination against a specific community

The team met three police officers at the Tanda Police Station and they were transparent in their

biases against adivasis, and Bhils in particular. They said this is an adivasi area and that is why

we have problems, and that they are all ruffians. When further asked how can we categorize a

group of people negatively, the Head Constable specified he meant ‘Bhils’. He went on to say

that they speak to you decently only when they want something, otherwise would loot you and

that no one should dare to go alone in these areas etc.

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The SP said his biases were because maximum FIRs were filed against these people. When

questioned on the casual discriminatory attitudes of the local police towards the local

community, he said it is possibly because his constables had ‘low IQ’. "It is a village that

survives on crime," SP Dhar district Virendra Singh is quoted to have said in a Times of India

article (on 31.1.17).

Investigation

A Special Investigation Team has been also constituted by the DGP, headed by an Additional SP

from Indore to carry out the investigation. The team includes an SI from Dhar District.

In the team’s interactions with the SP Dhar Mr. Virendra Singh, it was evident that he believes

that the allegations of rape and loot are all made up and that the police will come out with a clean

chit. He further added that he believes that the people have themselves destroyed their

belongings and property to convince outsiders of a case.

Top Photo: AJK Thana

Photo on the right: Protest on

the night of 25.01.17; Photo

Source: Local journalist

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Observations and Comments

• Insensitive response by senior police functionaries on serious charges of rape and loot by

state forces – the SP countering a charge of rape and loot by saying that the village is a den of

crime is equivalent to saying as if the crime does not need any discussion on its own, or is

acceptable in the light of the other. This kind of a response cannot be accepted as defense

under any circumstance. But newspapers continue to report that the police is defending itself

to Human Rights Commissions and enquiries that responding with charges that their men

were beaten up on an earlier occasion or that the area is known for thefts etc.

A defense that there were a handful of women police officers in the team that carried out the

operations and rapes could not have taken place in their presence does not recognize the fact

that in many places, women police officers have known to be mute spectators in the face of

violations leashed out by their male counterparts inside thanas. Moreover, a trip to the village

would clearly show that the houses are spread out across fields, and in a way that what is

happening in one house would not be known to a person in another house.

• Purpose of the operations seems to be to spread terror – In spite of their big numbers, the

police did not manage to arrest even one man, out of all the warrants they were supposedly

carrying. They have also filed an FIR against specific men for obstructing their official duty,

but these were not also apprehended. One of the rape survivors said that the police should

have gone only to the houses of those who had cases, why did they loot and attack everyone.

The purpose of the operation was clearly to spread terror by assaulting women and looting,

rather than arresting as this should not have been such an impossible task. The fact that the

police put pesticide in the soyabean and corn and broke vessels and khats suggests a sinister

objective of not allowing people to survive.

• Timing of the operation suggests intention to loot - It needs to be examined why the police

planned such a big operation involving 13 thanas at the given point of time. It is not they do

this on a monthly basis or something. January is also probably the time when people had

come back from Gujarat with their annual earnings and soyabean crop has been cut a couple

of months back. It is possible that the police is also aware of the fact of when they will find

money in people’s houses that the attack was planned when it was.

• Assumed impunity with the police – It is quite scary that the police feels that they could carry

on with these kinds of violations with a vulnerable population and get away with it in a free

state. It is a combination of power and state authority that the police unleashed this kind of

violence and loot in a village. The whole way in which this was carried out seemed to come

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with a sort of assumed impunity from the side of the police. What threw a spanner in the

works were the complaints from the women- not as easy to brush off as the loot complaints.

This incident in Dhar shows how this sense of impunity is seeping into the psyche of the

police and state across India. It is not only the tactical support that the state has provided to

casteist forces in various parts of the country including Madhya Pradesh, but is here directly

terrorizing people by loot and sexually assaulting women of socially and economically

vulnerable communities. We have so far seen this kind of impunity experienced by police

and security forces in the kinds of human rights violations reported from the interior villages

of Bastar and border states as Kashmir or Manipur.

• Carrying forward the British legacy of a criminal tribe - In 1871, the British had

promulgated the Criminal Tribes Act, an act to regulate specific communities by giving

police sweeping powers to arrest and control their movement, forceful separation of children

from parents and other such provisions. There was an assumption that a person born in this

community was ‘criminal by birth’. These were obviously communities that were ‘difficult’

for the Britishers for varied reasons. For instance, Bhils who had fought the British rule in

Kandesh and on the banks of Narmada were to be recognised as criminal tribes.

Bhils were listed as Criminal Tribes but their categorization was not across all states, and

also not across the years. However pockets continued to be seen as ‘ex-criminal’

communities and continue to suffer with this labeling.

The state has also not worked to make opportunities available for people while the police and

society continues to treat them with suspicion. Education options at the village level are nil,

so are the limited employment opportunities and people thrive on the little agricultural

income that they can and look for other options to supplement this. People are taking up

various options for their livelihood, as working in spinning mills, daily wage labour in

agricultural fields, driving, security guards, which is a clear sign of the need for survival and

willingness to try something that works for them. But there has been nothing offered through

the government.

Several team members were informed through different local people of that they should not

go to the area, and that it was unsafe for women to travel to these villages. The people were

aware of these perceptions about them. Women said, “you have come as a guest, we would

talk to you decently. Why would we harm anyone?” It should be considered that this

widespread perception needs to be changed. It does not aid the people’s self-esteem or

interactions with mainstream, or even contribute anywhere to controlling whatever level of

criminal activity that may be ongoing through specific individuals.

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The police told us that they had got the vehicles that they saw in the village and now the

people could retrieve them when they produced the papers. While this looks like a valid

argument in itself, it would not feel so if people came to our homes and took away our

vehicles. It is a clear assumption of being guilty until you prove yourself innocent. A visit to

the thana is fraught with uncertainty, stress and a money demand for the villagers. This is

another way in which the police has assumed that everything in the village was out of illegal

money and felt they could take a share of it or destroy it.

• Vulnerability of women – The team observed that the women have stood by each other in

this episode of extreme violence, but sexual assault is still a shameful thing to speak about in

a deeply patriarchal society and they speak in small groups or behind closed doors, and are

not able to publicly talk about it. The teams investigating this crime and even otherwise

understanding the situation in the village, need to recognize the patriarchal systems in

practice within the community. We cannot just see the whole community in one lens, but

need to examine the situation from the gendered lens also.

Demands

From the state government, we demand -

- The present FIR should be expanded to include charges of sexual molestation and looting

and destruction of property in accordance to the testimony of the women.

- A fair investigation in the matter and all involved to be criminally prosecuted. (We

cannot allow such people in a police force)

- Case be registered against the senior police officials who have abetted the crime by not

taking action.

- Interim Relief be provided to the survivors in accordance to the SC, ST Atrocity Act.

- Compensation should be provided based on a calculation of materials stolen as well as

the destroyed crop and household articles.

- The police men involved in the operation should be line attached and identification

parade be conducted to identify the policemen involved in the rapes and molestation. This

can be done through the roznamcha. Moreover, the scale of violence makes it evident that

the entire squad should be held responsible for the looting and unleashing of terror in the

two villages.

- This crime is not the first case of continuous and mass violence against tribes that were

labeled as “criminal”. In 2007, a big settlement of Pardhis had to leave their village in

Betul, when mass violence was unleashed on them, by the mob led by local leaders in

connivance with the police. Illegal detention of men, women and children of the same

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community continue to be common in the state capital itself. There is a need for a

tribunal to be formed to investigate such incidents.

We urge other human rights groups to examine the issues of denotifed tribal communities and

particularly this area more and accordingly take forward the cause of these communities. Our

limited visit revealed that there is much more to be understood. Specific areas that need to be

further probed include -

- Examine custodial deaths in the area and around, even though of the past.

- Examine the scale of extortion and human rights violations (illegal detention, custodial

torture) of vulnerable communities in the state, with a focus on ex-criminal tribes, and how

this pans out for children, women and men of the communities.

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Meetings conducted

Thursday 23/02/17 – Visit to Bhuthiya and Holibayda villages (full team)

1. Individual interviews with affected women

2. Group discussion with men and women in both villages

3. Meeting with specific families

4. Meeting with Anganwadi Worker and Sarpanch of Holibayda

5. Meeting with Head Constable, MS Solanki at Tanda Police Station

Friday 24/02/17 – Visit to Dhar (part of the team)

1. Meeting with Superintendent of Police, Dhar, Virendra Singh at SP Office, Dhar

2. Phone conversation with Dhar District Collector, Sriman Shukla

3. Visit to District Bhoj Hospital Dhar.

4. Phone conversation with Medical Doctor, Dr. Mamta Nigam, who examined the women

5. Phone conversation with MLA Dhar, Umang Singhar

Fact Finding Team Members

The fact-finding was carried out by members of M.P. Mahila Manch and independent activists.

1. Ram Kuwar (Prithampur)

2. Kirma (Prithampur)

3. Preeti (Indore)

4. Gopika Bashi (Bangalore)

5. Shivani Taneja (Bhopal)

6. Anu Arvind (Dewas)

7. Madhu Dhurve (Bhopal)

8. Shivani Bajpai (Indore)