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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Uttar Pradesh
On 28 July 2004, Mansaram, a Dalit
farmer, committed suicide in Ramnagar
Tehsil in Barabanki district. Two years
ago, Mansaram’s father Kallu and two
neighbors had taken a loan to buy a tractor.
But the UP Sahkari Gram Vikas Bank
auctioned off the tractor and his land for a
paltry sum when they failed to repay the
debt. An inquiry committee found the
district administration guilty of not
following procedures while auctioning off
the land. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh
Yadav suspended the District Magistrate
of Barabanki and five senior officials. The
CM cancelled the auction and announced
Rs 1 lakh as compensation. 39
In August 2004, one Nathu, a Dalit of
Nalgarha of Gautam Budh nagar district
filed a complaint with the National Human
Rights Commission alleging forcible
seizure of Dalits’ land by some influential
people of Nalgarha village in connivance
with officials in Sutyhana, Shahdar, Garhi,
Mohiyapur and Nalgarha. The Dalits had
been given the title deeds for these lands.
When the Dalits protested, they were
allegedly beaten up and some of them had
to be hospitalised. When a complaint was
lodged with the police, some people were
taken into custody; but no criminal case
was registered against them. They were all
set free later. 40
On 21 December 2003, two Dalit
youth - Vikas, a brick kiln labourer and
Munish, a carpenter, were killed by some
upper caste Rajputs in Santagarh village in
Saharanpur district for winning a cricket
match. A fact-finding team of the PUCL
250
reportedly found that the culprits in
connivance with the police fabricated the
FIR and included the name of the wrong
persons. Police were abysmally slow to
investigate the case and four other men
mentioned in FIR were yet to be
identified. 41
On 4 June 2004, two Dalit minors
were reportedly kidnapped from
Naurachandpur village and killed. 42
On 28 June 2004, a Dalit woman was
tonsured, stripped naked and forced to
march through the streets at Sirohadeeh
village in Ballia district after the village
panchayat found her “guilty” of adultery
following a complaint by the woman’s
husband. Police reportedly arrested eight
panchayat members. 43
On 30 July 2004, 20-year-old Ramrati,
a Dalit woman from Karanpur village in
Mohanlalganj on the outskirts of Lucknow
delivered a still-born child at the gate of
the Community Health Centre,
Mohanlalganj, after she was refused
treatment since her mother expressed
inability to pay up Rs 10,000 for the
delivery. Two inquiries were ordered into
the incident. Both came up with
completely contradictory reports. 44
On 31 August 2004, members of the
Rajput community allegedly beat up three
Dalit youth, including a physically
challenged person, and hanged them
upside down in a well for washing their
hands at the tubewell belonging to one
Kalu Rajput, an upper caste, in Sisana
village of Baghpat district. The Dalit
victims filed an FIR against seven people