annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Madhya Pradesh
Hospital Superintendent Dr Mathur and
physician Dr PK Jain. The Commission
also recommended to the state government
to provide compensation of Rs 25,000 to
the dependants of Omprakash. 18
There have been reports of rampant
sexual abuse of the newcomers in the
prisons by old inmates and there were no
protection. In September 2004, 24-yearold
Khalid had been allegedly sodomised
four times by three different inmates
during his 14-day judicial custody at
Bhopal prison. He complained to the jail
authorities against sodomy but they
reportedly expressed helplessness. 19
IV. Violence against women
Crimes against women including rape,
molestation, dowry harassment and dowry
deaths continued unabated. The Dalit and
indigenous women were extremely
vulnerable.
In April 2004, the Sarguja district
court sentenced four police jawans to ten
years of rigorous punishment for raping a
17-year-old girl after her abduction on 30
August 2001. 20
Assistant Sub-Inspector Pradeep
Gurjar of the Bairagarh police station in
Bhopal was suspended for his alleged
misbehaviour with women of a family
where he had gone to arrest an accused for
gambling on the night of 22 November
2004. 21
Mediaeval practices such as Sati is
still alive in the state. On 4 September
2004, a police party led by Superintendent
of police Yogesh Deshmukh foiled a bid of
Foolrani to commit Sati at the funeral pyre
of her husband Sunderlal Shivhara at
Simri village in Panna district. 22
V. Atrocities against the Dalits
The Dalits continued to face
systematic atrocities in Madhya Pradesh.
The mass rape of three Dalit women by
30 upper caste Yadavs on 8 July 2004 at
Bhamtola viullage under Kahniwara
police station of Seoni district
highlighted the gruesome violence
perpetrated on the Dalits.
On 3 February 2004, a Dalit leader
and president of Barogarh Janpad, Badri
Khangar in Chhatarpur district was
reportedly beaten up brutally and blinded
by the upper castes. His elder brother,
Thakurdeen was shot dead when he tried
to flee. 23
On 15 August 2004, Sona Bai, a dalit
BJP MLA from Patharia constituency, was
allegedly prevented from hoisting the
national flag on the Independence Day at
Patharia in Damoh district. She alleged
that Janpad President Raghuveer Singh
and a few policemen did not allow her to
hoist the national flag during the function
because of being a Dalit. “They called me
Chamaria and also manhandled me... I
have received an injury on my right hand,”
she alleged. She also alleged that when she
tried to register a police complaint, the
police inspector and Sub-Divisional
Magistrate turned her away. 24
There are reports that the upper caste
parents refused to allow their wards from
sharing utensils with the Dalit children
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