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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Haryana
panchayats, Manju and Hari Om moved
the Supreme Court. 21
On 14 December 2004, Chander
Singh Mann’s son Birpal of Hadodi village
under Badhra subdivision of Bhiwani
district married the daughter of Chhatar
Singh Bhambhu of Basdi village despite
objections from villagers, as the bride was
allegedly the maternal niece of Sheoran
gotra. A panchayat was convened late on
the night where former Sarpanch Jawahar
Singh, who presided over the Panchayat,
authorized a 21-member committee to
decide about on the matter. The committee
recommended social boycott and
expulsion of the family of Chander Singh.
The Panchayat directed the couple to break
up by 20 December 2004. Following the
defiance, the village Panchayat ordered
social boycott and expulsion of the Maan
family from the village. The Panchayat
further warned that anybody ploughing the
fields of Chander Singh Maan or cooperating
with his family in any way
would invite rigorous punishment. 22
V. Atrocities against the Dalits
The Dalits face many atrocities
ranging from lynching to murder, sexual
assault on women, public humiliation,
stripping, shaving off of the head etc. 23
On the night of 9 July 2004, about 12
persons barged into the house of a Dalit at
Nahri village, Sonepat and allegedly
manhandled the members of the family
and raped a minor girl. The girl was taken
to the civil hospital in Sonepat for medical
examination. 24
78
A Dalit woman accused five members,
including two women, of the upper caste
family of Mohinder Singh of Dodhipur
village of molesting her and using abusive
language against Dalits on 12 October
2004. The victim, an Anganwari worker
stated she had gone to administer polio
drops to children in that area as part of her
duty when the incident happened.
Although she reported the matter to the
police on that day, the police allegedly
refused to lodge her complaint. An FIR
was registered on 3 December 2004 after
several days of dharna outside the office of
the Samalkha Deputy Superintendent of
Police. A case was filed against five
members of the upper caste family under
relevant sections of the 1989 Prevention of
Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes Act. But at the same time
the police also registered a counter-FIR
allegedly lodged by a woman of Mohinder
Singh’s family accusing Karan Singh,
husband of the Dalit woman, of raping her
on 11 October 2004. No medical
examination of the alleged rape victim was
conducted nor a case was registered
against Karan Singh on that day. These
were allegedly part of the strategy to reach
compromise. 25
Risal Singh Rathee, a disabled Dalit
employee of the postal department, has
allegedly been victimised by his
department. He was able to get the order
of his pre-mature retirement in February
2004 reversed and was re-instated in June
2004. However, the postal department
officials reportedly stopped his salary for