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