On October 31st, Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district saw a horrifying murder of a 40-year-old Dalit woman at a flour mill. One month later, a fact-finding report details the horrifying details of the murder, and also reveals how there appears to be a collusion between those accused of the murder and law enforcement agencies. Published last by Dalit Dignity and Justice Centre, Bundelkhand Dalit Adhikar Manch, Vidhya Dham Samiti, Chingari Sangathan, and Youth for Human Rights Documentation, the report has also highlighted that the accused have links with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
What had happened?
According to the report, the victim was reportedly subjected to a horrifying gang rape after which she was beheaded at a flour mill reportedly owned by a higher caste, Shukla family who are noted to hold influence in the area. The victim and her husband were both employed by the family.
The body of the woman was discovered when her daughter arrived at the mill after hearing her screams from the closed door of the mill. However, she wasn’t let in initially, but after some time she was let in only to see the body of her mother lying in three pieces. A complaint was registered after this against the mill owners, Rajkumar, his brother Bauwa Shukla and Ramakrishna Shukla.
The accused individuals have in turn stated that the deceased died due to an accident at their flour mill. Furthermore, the police investigation appears to have thus far corroborated this explanation without conducting a thorough and impartial inquiry, according to the report. The report also states that an accident at the flour mill does not seem to be corroborated by the evidence from the photographs of the crime scene, which does not show a lot of blood spatter in the vicinity of the flour mill itself.
Accused being shielded
Furthermore, the report detailed that immediately after the incident as the family struggled to garner support and file an FIR at the Police Station, the DSP Nitin Kumar, DSP arrived at the village and tried to persuade the villagers that the incident was an accident at the flour mill. He furthermore briefed the media similarly about the nature of the incident being an accident even before an examination of the witness took place, the report details. Going further, just a few days after the incident, on November 2, 2023, Superintendent of Police Ankur Agrawal took to X and stated that after a preliminary investigation, it is understood that the incident occurred accidentally due to the victim getting stuck in the flour mill.
This story was originally published in sabrangindia.in. Read the full story here .