UP Police vs 13-year-old Dalit girl

If you had to choose between the police and a 13-year-old girl, whose story would you believe?

An incident that took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district presents a curious dilemma.

On August 6, Charan Singh, a 50-year-old farmer from Paratpur was tilling his field. His 13-year-old daughter, Sudha, was helping him.  Paratpur is primarily dominated by Yadavs. A few Dalit houses stand on the periphery of the village. Here, Dalits have small landholdings that are their only source of livelihood.

At some point in the day, Sudha realised she had forgotten to bring water from home. So, when she felt thirsty, she says she went to a temple near their field, which had a hand-pump outside.  “The moment I touched the hand-pump, the temple priest Baba Huran told me that I have polluted the water,” Sudha told local media. She also said that the priest started abusing her by her caste and used a trident to hit her.

The girl somehow managed to escape from the temple and narrated the incident to her father. Singh confronted the priest, only to also be beaten badly by the priest and his friend, Nathu Yadav.  “I kept on pleading to him, to stop beating my father, but they kept on hitting my father,” said Sudha.  When Sudha raised the alarm, a few villagers from Dalit community intervened and convinced the priest to stop.

Singh said when he reached the local police station, he was whisked away. “I was asked to compromise,” he said. “Only when Dalits from the village exerted pressure, a case was registered against the priest and his aide.”

National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) data shows crime against people of scheduled caste increased by 19.42 per cent between 2013 over 2014. UP tops the list of caste-based atrocities – 8075 out of all the 47,064 crimes reported in UP fall into this category. Under the circumstances, Sudha’s story sounds completely credible, if appalling. 

However, the UP police insist that not only is there no caste-angle to the situation, but they’re dismissing Sudha’s allegation that she was beaten. Gunnaur circle officer Pramod Kumar, under whose jurisdiction Paratpur comes, told Newslaundry, “The incident happened on August 6.  Baba (Huran) and Charan first had an altercation which turned into a fight.” According to Kumar, Charan, Huran and Nathu Yadav used to sit together and consume liquor. “The scuffle started when a water pipe got stolen from the temple and Charan blamed the priest for it,” Kumar said.

When asked about Sudha being assaulted by the priest, Kumar said, “So far, no one from Charan’s family has come forward and complained about this.”

Though a complaint against the accused was registered under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and the priest and his aide were arrested on the same day of the incident, there seems to be a concerted effort to downplay the incident. Standard operating procedure would be to register the complaint and then investigate the case. In this case, however, it seems the police has already come to its conclusions. Gunnaur sub-divisional magistrate Hari Shankar Yadav said, “The accused Baba and complainant Charan were in good terms. And it looks like a matter of personal feud.” Once again, Sudha’s story has not been acknowledged.

In the few media reports that have come out – newswire ANI has a story – that Sudha was not allowed to drink from the temple hand-pump has been acknowledged, even though it’s not mentioned in the police report. With UP elections round the corner, the spotlight is on the state and the use of caste politics. Even if it isn’t likely to change the reality of Sudha not being allowed to touch a hand-pump, let’s hope Sudha’s story is heard at the very least and no one gets away with the fig leaf of “personal feud”.