Source: Hindustan Times
“Mausam, Amit, Raju (Jats) Akash & Sandeep Kumar in 2013 allegedly gangraped a Dalit woman & filmed it, threatened her with the video & raped her again, pressurising her family to drop the case and leave town.
Family members of the accused said that the victim was lying & “playing the Dalit card” to gain sympathy
Two of them were arrested and released on bail while three others were never arrested.
In 2016 the same Dalit woman was raped again.”
On July 13, 2016, a 21-year-old Dalit woman was found unconscious in the Sukhpura Chowk area of Rohtak, Haryana. A masters student at Rohtak’s MD university, she was allegedly abducted from near her college, drugged, gangraped, and left to die in the bushes by two out of five men who had raped her before in Bhiwani in 2013. Out of the five men, Mausam Kumar, Amit, and Raju alias Jagmohan are Jats, while two others, Akash and Sandeep Kumar are Dalits.
After the five men allegedly raped her in Bhiwani in 2013, two of them were arrested and released on bail while the other three were never arrested. While the family filed a case for their re-arrest and continued to seek justice, they were faced with social ostracization and shaming, as well as threats to their safety from the accused, who were allegedly pressuring them to agree to an out-of-court settlement of 50 lakh rupees. This victim-blame forced the family to move to Rohtak.
According to the victim’s mother, she was first gangraped by the five accused on October 18 in 2013, when they videographed the act and threatened to release them online. They further threatened her saying that they would release the videos if she did not meet them to settle the matter on October 22, when they gangraped her again. However, a sessions court in Bhiwandi in 2015 ruled that the accused were not guilty, due to differing testimonies given by the victim between 24 October 2013, and 11 November 2013. According to some reports, the victim was drugged before being raped in 2013 as well, and this, along with the fact that the accused had video recordings of the violence, point to the reason why the victim may have been reluctant to give her entire testimony or not testified to all facts accurately. According to the victim’s cousin, in the period following the violence, they were also made to go from one police station to the other without cooperation from the police. The victim’s family challenged the court order in the Chandigarh High Court.
The kin of the accused claimed that she was lying and blamed her of playing ‘the Dalit card’. Phrases such as this, which frame marginalization as an advantage to be used by a victim for their benefit, are a form of victim blame, aimed at discrediting a victim due to their caste.
The case was complicated in November, 2016, when a District Court in Rohtak released all five accused after a Special Investigation Team found no investigation against them, and CCTV footage and call records showed that they were not in town on the date and time of the crime. The accused and their counsel went on record to say that they would file defamation cases against the complainant.
The police arrested two other men, Sandeep Hooda and Pramod Kumar after they were seen on CCTV footage along with the victim. Their castes were not reported, though Hooda is a surname used by Jats. Without confirming their version of the events with the victim, the police shared their testimony with the media which said that the victim had called Pramod to her college gate, gone to a hotel with him, where they had had a few drinks and had consensual sex, before he left her in an inebriated state. The victim’s family found out about this statement through the newspapers. This callousness on the part of the police shows a tendency of highlighting facts which follow a narrative of victim blame while showing a disregard for the victim’s privacy.
References:
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/rohtak-gangrape-dalit-woman-2920820/
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2016/jul/18/Rapists-on-bail-rape-Haryana-Dalit-woman-again-882273.html
https://thewire.in/gender/rohtak-dalit-gang-rape
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/3-years-on-Rohtak-girl-raped-again-by-same-five-accused/articleshow/53256791.cms
https://scroll.in/latest/811968/haryana-student-gangraped-a-second-time-in-three-years-by-same-men
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/rohtak-dalit-gangrape-case-sit-says-no-proof-court-frees-all-5-accused-3088664/
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/choked-threatened-beaten-rohtak-gangrape-victim-recalls-horror/story-JTiZm2GaauSTOTDeNOWHVL.html
https://www.freepressjournal.in/cmcm/rohtak-gang-rape-case-victims-kin-blames-police-of-trying-to-save-accused
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/Fifth-arrest-made-in-Rohtak-gang-rape/article14508393.ece
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/220716/rohtak-double-gangrape-survivor-says-she-lives-in-fear.html?fromNewsdog=1
http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/rohtak-horror-where-dalit-women-and-children-are-rape-targets-1469121086.html
https://www.thequint.com/news/india/rohtak-gang-rape-amid-conflicting-versions-in-search-of-truth-sit
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/rohtak-bhiwani-dalit-woman-gangrape-twice-victim-mother-2922346/
