Spectre of caste looms over triple murder in Madhya Pradesh

A fortnight ago, a family belonging to the Kurmi caste in the State’s Damoh district accused their Dalit neighbours of sexual harassment and shot dead three members of the household. While the police, local MLA and members of the OBC community deny a caste angle to the incident, the survivors say the violence stemmed from the accused’s sustained desire to dislodge them from the village over a property dispute and their caste

Seated amid broken stones strewn outside her house in Deoran village in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district, 28-year-old Sita Rani is numb with shock recalling the shootings just 48 hours ago that snuffed out the lives of her husband Manak Ahirwar, 32, and in-laws Ghamandi, 60, and Raj Pyari, 58. She remembers the morning of October 25 turning tense around 7 a.m. when their neighbour, Jagdish Patel, 48, stormed into their house, accusing Manak of sexually harassing his wife. This was the second time Mr. Patel, who belongs to the Kurmi caste, was visiting the 14-member Dalit household that morning. “His wife alleged that Manak had looked at her with ‘ buri niyat (evil intentions)’,” she says, a claim that Manak refuted. “But Jagdish abused him and then went outside.”

He soon returned with a large group of people armed with guns, axes, iron rods and spades, says Ms. Sita Rani. Mr. Patel resumed the argument over the alleged sexual harassment with Manak, who was doing chores outside the house with most of his family members. “Jagdish and his companions said they would report the matter to the police. We agreed with them,” she says.

Moments later, Ms. Sita Rani says, she froze with horror as one of the assailants yelled, “ Bandookein chalengi aaj (Guns will be fired today)”. Gunfire rang through the still morning air, killing the three senior members of the Ahirwar family. Manak’s brother, Mahesh, 30, suffered a bullet wound in his leg, but his other brother, Balakdas, their spouses, and six children escaped unhurt.

Unlike many villages in India, where members of the same caste live together in clusters, the Dalit household in Deoran was surrounded by Kurmis, a landowning farming community that belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC). This was a rare arrangement, say residents of the village located nearly 280 km from the State capital, Bhopal. While the police maintain that anger over the alleged sexual harassment led to the murders, survivors of the Ahirwar family say the violence stemmed from a long-standing property dispute. They allege that the Patels wanted to “drive them out” and their caste contributed to the neighbours’ “problem with coexistence”.

Rajbai, 24, the wife of Mr. Mahesh, consoles their four-year-old son even as she takes care of her newborn, whom she delivered just a day after the murders. (Mr. Mahesh was discharged on October 31, but he won’t be able to return to work soon as his wound may take longer to heal.)

Ms. Sita Rani, who dropped out of school after Class VI, says Ghamandi stopped working four years ago after suffering a stroke and the three brothers were daily wage workers who took up odd jobs from loading goods to rolling beedis. Her 11-year-old son points to the wall of the house pockmarked with bullet holes and the dried bloodstains on the ground where his father fell while Ms. Sita Rani signs documents brought by panchayat secretary Jhali Patel to secure the ex gratia announced by the State government. Such formalities and queries posed by the police have left her with little time to mourn, she says.

Ms. Sita Rani says there were 15-20 attackers who arrived at their house carrying at least three firearms. However, the FIR that the police filed based on her complaint named only seven accused — Mr. Patel, his wife Vandana, sons Shubham and Saurabh, his uncle Kuddu, nephew Manish, and another relative Ghanshyam — all of whom have been arrested. They have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 294 (using obscene acts and songs), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.