Kajal was found dead at this site. The police claimed that Kajal had committed suicide by hanging herself from this tree. The post-mortem reports revealed sexual assault and rape.
There is a recurring visual and narrative of dead Dalit women hanging from trees being written off as suicide; that which needs to be questioned and be made part of our resistance. Women committing suicide due to shame after sexual assault is a recurring narrative that is woven to erase murder, especially given the discrepancies between the post-mortem reports and how the case is being resolved.
Image source: Sukanya Shantha for the Wire
“Inspector N.K. Rabari allegedly refused to file an FIR when Kajal Rathod, a 19-year-old Dalit girl, went missing in Modasa, 2020. He claimed to her family that she had eloped with a man from her own caste.
Kajal was allegedly abducted, raped, & murdered by 4 men from the Rabari caste. When her body was found, the Modasa police ignored evidence of violence to call it a suicide, blaming Kajal for her own death. ”
On January 5, 2020, the body of Kajal, a 19-year old Dalit woman was found hanging from a banyan tree in the Saira village in Modasa, Gujarat. She had been missing for four days before that.
Her sister reported that she had been abducted by four men from the Bharvad family- Bimal, Darshan, Jigar, and Satish. She alleged that after abducting her, the four men had gangraped and then hanged her. All of the four men belonged to the Rabari caste, which has historically been associated with pastoral occupations. The Rabari caste is classified as OBC (Other Backward Class) in the region and although the caste is socially and economically backward, this particular family owned land and commanded political influence. The victim was from the Chamar caste, a Scheduled Caste traditionally associated with occupations considered ‘impure’ by Hinduism such as tanning and leatherwork, and against whom untouchability is still practised by upper-caste Hindus.
When she first went missing, the family went to the police station to file a report, but were faced by inaction from the authorities. N.K. Rabari, an inspector who belonged to the same caste as the rapists, reportedly refused to file a complaint. He said that he had knowledge of her whereabouts, and lied to the family saying she had eloped to marry a man from their own caste. He even said he would soon produce her with her marriage certificate. At this time, she was possibly still alive, and could have been saved from her abductors had the police not intentionally dismissed the parents.
The family’s instinctive fear and distress was natural seeing as they were one of only four Dalit families in the village, surrouunded and outnumbered by powerful castes. The police’s victim-blame was directed at both the victim and her family. They dismissed the family’s fears and experience, rendering the caste oppression they have faced in the village invisible. Not only did the police lie to the family, they also intentionally picked the kind of lie that would put blame on the victim and the men of their own caste.
Later, the police misinterpreted and ignored crucial pieces of evidence which suggested assault and rape, as well as her sister’s testimony, instead claiming that the victim had committed suicide. They exploited the fact that she was no longer alive to give her testimony to blame her for the violence she faced, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
References:
https://thewire.in/rights/modasa-gangrape-murder-case-investigation-discrepancies
https://thewire.in/women/gujarat-modasa-dalit-woman-raped-hanged
