One of the survivors on her way to work. (Source: Ayesha Minhaz for Scroll.in)
On August 20, 2007, 11 women of the Kondh tribe in a tribal village called Vakapalli, in the Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, were allegedly raped by 13 Greyhound personnel.
The Greyhounds are a special unit of the police force that operates in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and specialises in anti-insurgency operations against Maoists and Naxalites. The names and castes of the rapists have not been reported. The victims belonged to the Kondh tribe, and are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in Andhra Pradesh, a sub-classification under Scheduled Tribes.
Vakapalli falls in one of several areas along the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha where Naxalites have a presence. The Greyhounds personnel stormed the village at around 6 AM in the morning, for what they called a “combing operation”, or looking for Naxalites. The men had left to work in the farms much earlier in the morning, at around 4-4:30 AM. Only women and children were present in the village at the time. The Greyhounds reportedly surrounded the village, began to ransack the homes in the village, and raping the women. Some women were raped at gunpoint, utensils thrown around in the homes, the power supply cut. Some women were raped in the fields. Out of the 11 women, 7 women were gangraped.
Operations to “flush” out Maoists or Naxalites by state personnel or state-sponsored militant groups has long been an excuse to inflict violence against tribal communities, especially women. When the 11 victims sought justice against their rapists, they were faced with dismissal and victim-blame from the State as well as their community.
On the day of the violence, when they went to file an FIR, the local police refused to file one, saying that the women had fabricated the crime. The Superintendent of Police Akum Sabharwal, said that the allegations were baseless and the women wanted to tarnish the image of the police. The Director General of Police, MA Basit said that the allegations were baseless and part of a ploy by Maoists to discourage combing operations. The FIR was only registered a week later after protests by villagers.
On September 6, an inquiry was initiated by the State Government under the charge of the Secretary of Tribal Welfare. The report said that no medical evidence of rape was found, even though the FIR was filed a week after the rape. In the inquiry, the police accepted that 21 Greyhounds personnel were present in the hamlet on that day but denied the allegations of rape, instead claiming that the 30 women in the hamlet had attacked them when they attempted to take one person into custody during a routine combing operation. But the report recommended that an investigation be conducted without any further loss of time, since no investigation had begun even 18 days after the police complaint was filed.
A tribal-rights organisation, Andhra Pradesh Girijan Samakhya, filed a writ petition in the High Court in September 2007, following which the investigation was handed over to the superintendent of police of the Crime Investigation Department. On November 14, 2007, based on the CID’s report, the High Court dismissed the writ petition. In 2008, the victims challenged the CID report before a local magistrate which began proceedings in the case. Soon, the High Court stayed the proceedings based on an appeal by the accused. Four years later, it ruled that only 13 out of the 21 accused personnel could be tried in the case. The 13 personnel filed another petition in the Supreme Court to quash the criminal case against them.
In 2017, ten years after the rape of the 11 women, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the accused and ruled that the case should be concluded in the next six months. However, the police, protecting the accused, have continued to cause delays. As of February 2020, the case was still not concluded, with the police refusing to cooperate and claiming that key documents required for the trial were ‘untraceable’.
The accused State personnel are taking advantage of the stigma and trauma of the victims, and delaying the case in order to overwhelm the victims, their communities, and their resources. In the many years following the violence, the victims have faced victim blame in various forms.
According to a local custom, women who face harm are separated from their families and not allowed into their homes until the perpetrators are brought to justice. One of the women was separated from her new-born baby as well. They were provided shelter during this separation by the village leader. However, during this time, one of the women died from a snake bite. Another woman died after severe mental trauma. When the community realised that seeking justice against the police would be a long battle, a cleaning ritual was performed on the women. The women were asked to bathe themselves in the cold water of a nearby river before they could enter their homes. Many of the women restricted themselves to working and staying at home for years due to the fear and shame of being identified in public. The victims were also ordered by the panchayat to pay 10,000 rupees and a bull each as penalty for being raped. The penalties were waived off after intervention by an NGO. Some of the husbands continued to resent the victims for a long time. One husband of a victim said that even though he knew it was not her fault, sometimes he got so angry at her that he felt like drinking her blood. Another husband wished that his wife had died after being gang-raped. Due to ostracization from the community, two of the women were abandoned by their husbands.
Meanwhile, the police intimidated and harassed various members of the community, blocking their access to facilities such as healthcare, banks, higher education, revenue offices, and so on, all of which were located in the mandal headquarters. People travelling to and from there were illegally detained and abused in custody. One man, named Korra Chinnabai, disappeared shortly after the police told his friend that there was a Naxal case against him. The police denied having him in custody. The police filed numerous Naxal cases against the villagers to demoralise them and increase the pressure on the victims.
Throughout their battle for justice, the women continued to face the accusation that they were lying because they were Maoists or because they were protecting Maoists. Even if this was true, it doesn’t negate the fact the women were raped, but calling Adivasi women Maoists or Maoist sympathisers is the State’s way of justifying and blaming them for any violence inflicted upon them.
References:
https://scroll.in/article/848097/adivasi-women-in-andhra-who-accused-elite-anti-naxal-force-of-rape-10-years-ago-struggle-for-justice
http://www.vizaginfo.com/vnews/2007/august/Eleven-Tribal-women-allegedly-gang-raped.asp
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/a-decade-later-ordeal-continues-for-greyhound-rape-victims-of-visakhapatnam/story-yH8gRyNKIIvPp0ZIbPsBEP.html
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra-pradesh/2017/aug/19/10-years-later-still-no-justice-for-vakapalli-tribal-women-in-vishakapatnam-gang-raped-by-greyhound-1645174.html
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra-pradesh/2017/sep/01/sc-fast-tracks-trial-of-greyhounds-cops-for-2007-gunpoint-rape-of-11-tribal-women-1651159.html
https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/11274-ap-rape-victims-punished-while-accused-stay-free
https://www.newsclick.in/11-years-vakapalli-adivasi-women-struggle-justice-against-rape-accused-anti-naxal-force
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/2007-vakapalli-gangrape-ap-cops-delay-trial-claiming-documents-untraceable-117832
