A delegation from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) consisting of Central Secretariat member Nilotpal Basu, Central Committee member and leader of CPI(M) Group in Lok Sabha P. Karunakaran and CPI(M) member of Lok Sabha Badrudzza Khan visited Dingerheri village, Mewat in Haryana today. They were accompanied by former CPI(M) Haryana state secretary Inderjit Singh and Party state committee member Satbir Singh.
They had gone there to meet the families of the victims of the double murder and gangrape of two girls from a poor landless family from the minority Muslim community in the village.
The delegation met the families of the victims and other villagers. They also interacted with sarpanchas of the village and adjoining villages. They also met the Deputy Commissioner as well as members of the Bar association of Nuh District as also the SP under whose jurisdiction the village falls.
Certain startling facts relating to the shocking episode were brought to the notice of the delegation.
The facts are:
- A group of antisocial criminals stormed and attacked the sleeping family members of Zahuruddin at their farm residence during the intervening night of August 24 and 25, 2016. The landless Muslim family has been earning their livelihood by farming on someone’s land near the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KLP highway) in the fields of village Dingarheri in the Taoru subdivision of Mewat district of Haryana, for the past few years.
2. A couple Ibrahim (38) and his wife Rashidan(35) were murdered. Zafaruddin, his wife Aisa and two sons Parvez (11) and Naved (8) were grievously injured. All were hit on the head. Zafaruddin is still admitted to the AIIMS trauma centre at New Delhi.
3. Two cousin girls (one minor) were brutally gang raped. Gang rape victims have made shocking revelations while narrating their agony before female journalists. They have since identified the four accused persons three of whom belong to neighbouring village and are from the Ahir community. The accused reportedly told the rape victims that they were being punished for eating beef. They also urinated in the mouth of victim girls when they demanded water for drinking. From this it is clear that it was not crime of ordinary criminal nature but a most outrageous and heinous violent assault perpetrated with communal motivation. The severity and magnitude of the brutality involved here indicates a persecution with hate and vengeance against an imagined enemy and in this case the poor landless family is targeted as they are more vulnerable.
4. The visiting Party team was informed that two of the four arrested accused have been found to have active RSS connections as revealed from the contents of their Facebook accounts.
5. Above communal angle finds further credibility if one just has a cursory look at the way the police and the BJP government have dealt with this horrible crime. Serious loopholes have been deliberately left at almost each and every step beginning from filing the FIR, adding of relevant and appropriate sections of the IPC, recording of victims statements, postmortem reports, interrogation of the accused etc.
6. It is shocking that the section 302 pertaining to murder was added only a week after the crime was committed. Initially it was made out to be a case of 460 IPC i.e. of trespassing for dacoity etc. Both the gang rape victims were taken to Nuh (the district headquarter) for recording their statements even as two dead bodies were still lying behind. No one from the family was asked to accompany the girls. They were kept in an isolated room and even water was not served.
7. The time of post mortem of both the deceased is exactly the same as entered in the report. Owing to such attitude of the police, local administration and the govt. anger spread in the entire area which was witnessed in a huge congregation of people belonging to all communities on 1 Sept.
8. All advocates of the bar association also took part and promised to provide legal assistance. It was only due to this pressure that the Chief Minister accepted most of the genuine demands including handing over of the case to CBI, providing govt. jobs to the next of the kin of the deceased, providing financial assistance to rape victims and punishment to police officers for gross mishandling of the whole case. But most of the assurances are yet to be implemented.
9. A counter mobilization of a particular community was managed in support of the arrested accused and a ruling BJP legislator attended it. This was a sinister move to incite communal passions in the area.
10. This apart, just before the Eid festival tensions were created by collecting biryani samples from road-side vendors and hurriedly declaring it positive for beef content. On 17 Sept. Chief Minister made a highly objectionable public statement calling the Dingerheri gang rape and beef Biryani episodes as trivial and small issues over which he did not give much attention. In this situation it seems that the state govt. and its administration continue to be indifferent and communally biased. It appears to show no regard for the rights of citizens and its accountability towards law of the land.
It is a patent case involving not only brutal atrocities and trauma on minority poor family with clear cut communal motivation but also gross violation of human rights of citizens.
In the light of the above the delegation demands:
i) Provision of immediate relief and security to the families of the victims who continue to live under constant threat and trauma.
ii) While handing over the papers to the CBI the administration should give a note saying that certain infirmities have been committed during the investigation.
iii) A complete ban on cow vigilante groups should be imposed immediately.