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