11-23-2006, 10:59 AM
link<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A protest march led by Dalit leader Jogendra Kawade passed off peacefully.
The middle-aged farmer's wife Surekha, young daughter Priyanka and two sons Sudhir and Roshan were stripped and beaten to death by an enraged group of men and women Sep 29 in village Khairlanji in Bhandara district about 80 kilometers from here.
<span style='color:blue'><b>The immediate provocation for the mostly non-dalit villagers was that Surekha and Priyanka had testified against 15 of them in a case of beating up of one Siddharth Gajbhiye - also a Dalit and a kin of Surekha - earlier that month.
In a belated action on Siddharth's complaint, the police had arrested the 15 villagers Sep 29 and released them on bail the same day.
Siddharth, a well-to-do Dalit and 'police patil' of the neighbouring village, often stood by Bhotmanges and interceded on their behalf in a long drawn land dispute.</b> </span>
Accompanied by some 40 others immediately on being freed on bail, the 'implicated' 15 marched straight to Bhotmange's house and butchered the family in an orgy of violence that lasted two hours.
Unseen by the enraged crowd, Bhaiyyalal witnessed the nerve-shattering brutality for about half an hour from a distance and then fled to a neighbouring village in a state of shock that rendered him speechless for over a fortnight.
Naked bodies of the four Bhotmanges bearing multiple wounds were found the next day in a nearby canal.
Wednesday's press conference brought a rare experience for reporters as they waited with bated breath for full five minutes that Bhaiyyalal took before he could gather wits and words to speak - apparently reliving the nightmare of Sep 29.
Unending stream of tears rolling down his cheeks, he narrated the horrendous story of reprisal amid sobs and long pauses - of how the dominant people in the village asked for a ten meter patch from one side of his five acre farm for road construction and then a larger one passing through it and how he went on making concessions to avoid a fight.
<b>"They (the villagers) were angry because we lived our life our way without saluting them or generally without submitting to their domination", Bhaiyyalal said.
"They hated us because we did well with our five acre farm; because my son and daughter went to school and perhaps because we kept aloof", he said. </b>
Accusing the police of being hand in glove with the powerful in the village, Bhaiyyalal said nearly half of the people in the crowd that killed his family including the village sarpanch and upsarpanch are moving scot-free.
The police had a tough time arresting some 40 odd persons for the violence perpetrated against the hapless Dalit family under the cover of darkness as no one in the village of a population of 800 is ready to testify.
<span style='font-size:16pt;line-height:100%'>Only three of the 175 households in the village - including that of Bhotmanges - belong to the Dalit community, the others coming from Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.</span>
An exasperated home minister of Maharashtra, R. R. Patil, who visited Khairlanji nearly a fortnight after the incident, had told reporters that the police would be constrained to punish the entire village population if they don't cooperate in the process of investigation.
The government has suspended three policemen including a sub inspector for dereliction of duties in the case, instituted a CID probe and hinted at handing it over to CBI if the CID probe fails to dig out the truth.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The middle-aged farmer's wife Surekha, young daughter Priyanka and two sons Sudhir and Roshan were stripped and beaten to death by an enraged group of men and women Sep 29 in village Khairlanji in Bhandara district about 80 kilometers from here.
<span style='color:blue'><b>The immediate provocation for the mostly non-dalit villagers was that Surekha and Priyanka had testified against 15 of them in a case of beating up of one Siddharth Gajbhiye - also a Dalit and a kin of Surekha - earlier that month.
In a belated action on Siddharth's complaint, the police had arrested the 15 villagers Sep 29 and released them on bail the same day.
Siddharth, a well-to-do Dalit and 'police patil' of the neighbouring village, often stood by Bhotmanges and interceded on their behalf in a long drawn land dispute.</b> </span>
Accompanied by some 40 others immediately on being freed on bail, the 'implicated' 15 marched straight to Bhotmange's house and butchered the family in an orgy of violence that lasted two hours.
Unseen by the enraged crowd, Bhaiyyalal witnessed the nerve-shattering brutality for about half an hour from a distance and then fled to a neighbouring village in a state of shock that rendered him speechless for over a fortnight.
Naked bodies of the four Bhotmanges bearing multiple wounds were found the next day in a nearby canal.
Wednesday's press conference brought a rare experience for reporters as they waited with bated breath for full five minutes that Bhaiyyalal took before he could gather wits and words to speak - apparently reliving the nightmare of Sep 29.
Unending stream of tears rolling down his cheeks, he narrated the horrendous story of reprisal amid sobs and long pauses - of how the dominant people in the village asked for a ten meter patch from one side of his five acre farm for road construction and then a larger one passing through it and how he went on making concessions to avoid a fight.
<b>"They (the villagers) were angry because we lived our life our way without saluting them or generally without submitting to their domination", Bhaiyyalal said.
"They hated us because we did well with our five acre farm; because my son and daughter went to school and perhaps because we kept aloof", he said. </b>
Accusing the police of being hand in glove with the powerful in the village, Bhaiyyalal said nearly half of the people in the crowd that killed his family including the village sarpanch and upsarpanch are moving scot-free.
The police had a tough time arresting some 40 odd persons for the violence perpetrated against the hapless Dalit family under the cover of darkness as no one in the village of a population of 800 is ready to testify.
<span style='font-size:16pt;line-height:100%'>Only three of the 175 households in the village - including that of Bhotmanges - belong to the Dalit community, the others coming from Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.</span>
An exasperated home minister of Maharashtra, R. R. Patil, who visited Khairlanji nearly a fortnight after the incident, had told reporters that the police would be constrained to punish the entire village population if they don't cooperate in the process of investigation.
The government has suspended three policemen including a sub inspector for dereliction of duties in the case, instituted a CID probe and hinted at handing it over to CBI if the CID probe fails to dig out the truth.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->