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Thursday, July 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji murders: Dalit killers escape death

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Khairlanji-killings--HC-commutes-death-penalty-of-6-to-life/646432

Khairlanji murders: Dalit killers escape death

Agencies Posted online: Wed Jul 14 2010, 15:09 hrs
Nagpur : The Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death
sentence of six convicts in the infamous Khairlanji Dalit killings
case to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar sentence for two
others serving life term.
Justice Lavande of Nagpur bench of the court held that all the eight
convicts will undergo 25 years of life imprisonment including the
period they have already spent in jail.

The case pertains to the brutal murder of four members of a Dalit
family - Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka, sons
Sudhir and Roshan - by an angry mob in Khairlanji village on September
29, 2006.

Justice A P Lavande pronounced the judgement while Justice R C Chavan,
who is on an assignment at the High Court in Mumbai, joined him via
video conference here.

This is for the first time that a judgement has been pronounced by a
division bench through video conference.

Pronouncing the operative part of the verdict, Justice Lavande
disposed of appeals of defence as well as prosecution.

CBI had appealed for enhancing the sentence of two convicts, who were
sentenced for life. The convicts had also appealed against the
sentence by the trial court at Bhandara.

The death sentence awarded by the trial court had come up before the
High Court for confirmation.

The bench had heard the matter on a daily basis from March 29 and
reserved it for judgement before the summer vacation.

In view of sensitivity of the matter, a tight vigil was maintained in
and around the high court.

A trial court of S S Dass, on September 24, 2008, awarded capital
punishment to six persons. Two others were given life imprisonment.

The six convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life are
Sakru Binjewar, Ramu Dhande, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande,
Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhakar Mandlekar. Gopal Binjewar and
Shishupal Dhande were awarded life imprisonment.

The CBI had also filed appeal against acquittal of all the eight under
the Prevention of Atrocities on SC/ST Act as the victims belonged to a
Dalit family from Khairlanji.

However, the High Court did not consider the CBI plea and upheld the
trial court's judgement dropping the charges under the Prevention of
Atrocities Act.

CBI Counsel Ejaz Khan demanded enhancement of sentence for two accused
who were sentenced to life. He argued that trial court ought to have
considered evidence which pointed out towards sexual abuse of Surekha
and Priyanka.

"By dropping the atrocities charges against the accused persons, the
gravity of crime has been substantially diluted," CBI contended.

The defence lawyers pointed out several discrepancies and omissions in
the evidence produced on record. Political pressure and biased
investigation has resulted in miscarriage of justice, they claimed.

The defence lawyers charged the prime witness Siddarth Gajbhiye with
falsely implicating innocent villagers of Khairlanji. Even Mukesh
Pusam, another prime witness, was not present in the village on the
day of the incident, they argued.

The accused challenged their conviction and supported the decision of
special court to drop charges under the Prevention of Atrocities Act
and also charges of sexual abuse.

Counsel Khan represented CBI in the High Court while Special Public
Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam had conducted the trial before the special
court at Bhandara. Advocates Neeraj Khandewale and Sudeep Jaiswal
defended the accused in the trial court as well in High Court.

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[ZESTCaste] Khap panchayats conceal caste issue by bringing up gotra, says Brinda

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article515828.ece

PUNE, July 15, 2010

Khap panchayats conceal caste issue by bringing up gotra, says Brinda

Amruta Byatnal

The Congress leader who eats in Dalit houses should also take care
that the Dalit people are allowed to live, CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat said
at the Kalindi Deshpande Memorial Lecture here.

She was speaking on the 'Women's movements and confronting
contemporary challenges.'

Referring to the recent incident of a Dalit boy eloping with a Brahmin
girl in a village near Delhi and his family getting threats from the
police and the Brahmins of the village, Ms. Karat said caste and
citizenship were the biggest challenges in front of the women's
movement.

"We are living in an India today where democracy is being subverted in
many ways," she said.

Launching an attack on the khap panchayats, she said they were
bringing up the gotra issue only to conceal the bigger question of
caste.

Narrating her visit to the families of the Dalit boy and the Brahmin
girl, she said the Dalits had been threatened by the Brahmins that if
they didn't return the girl, they would 'take' one of the Dalit girls.
The father of the boy had spent Rs. 1.5 lakh and sold his land to
search for the couple. The police had even picked up another Dalit
youth from the village to threaten the others.

Vulnerability
Ms. Karat, who demanded a separate law on honour killings earlier this
month, said the fear was so large that it showed 'the vulnerability of
the Dalit boy, who was only one and a half hours away from Delhi and
yet couldn't point a finger at the police and say they were wrong.'

Stating that fundamentalism is a major challenge to democracy, Ms.
Karat said France's ban on the burqa in public spaces will only
strengthen fundamentalism.

"The concept of what constitutes freedom should be clear. Claiming to
be right under the pretext of secularism is wrong," she said.

Women's freedom
There is no difference then, between countries who force the veil on
their women and countries who force them not to wear it. Either way,
the freedom of the woman is not respected, she said.

On the issue of food security, she said the government's decision to
start a targeted PDS with selected districts and then expanding it to
the rest of the country to make it universal is a poor compromise.
"This selective method will do more damage than good. The partial
universalisation should not end up being sham universalisation," she
said.

She said the kind of work that women are being offered in the
neo-liberal system is another challenge that has to be overcome.

In the 65 MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act) sites that she had visited, she found that women are made to lift
approximately 1500 kg of soil everyday and get paid Rs. 100 whereas
their male counterparts who are industrial workers get Rs. 350 for the
same amount of work.

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[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji case: Dalit leaders want death for killers

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/646489/

Khairlanji case: Dalit leaders want death for killers

Agencies Posted online: Wed Jul 14 2010, 17:45 hrs
Nagpur : Expressing dissatisfaction over the Bombay High Court verdict
in the Khairlanji killings, Dalit leaders of Maharashtra today asked
the state government to appeal in the Supreme Court to seek death
penalty for the convicts.
The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court today commuted the death
sentence of six convicts in the Khairlanji Dalit killings case to 25
years imprisonment.

"The government should approach the Supreme Court against the
verdict...I will speak to Chief Minister on this issue," Dairy
Development Minister Nitin Raut said.

The court verdict is unfortunate and the government should appeal in
the apex court, Raut, who is a prominent Dalit leader from Vidarbha
region, said.

Former minister Sulekha Kumbhare said she would speak to Home Minister
R R Patil and ask him to approach the Supreme Court immediately to
appeal against the HC ruling.

"We don't accept the HC verdict. Injustice has been heaped on Dalit
community. We demand death penalty for the accused," she said.

Former MP Prakash Ambedkar said the state government needs to take the
verdict seriously and appeal in the apex court to assuage feelings of
the Dalits who have been hurt by the HC ruling.

The Khairlanji verdict has come as a shocker to the Ambedkarite
movement, former MP and RPI leader Ramdas Athawale said.

"I will meet Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Home Minister R R Patil
to demand immediate appeal by the state government in Supreme Court,"
Athawale said.

"Instances of injustice against Dalits are on the rise all over the
country. Dalit masses should organise an agitation against such
injustice," he said.

Survivor too demands capital punishment

The lone survivor of Khairlanji dalit killing incident, Bhaiyalal
Bhotmange on Wednesday said he was unhappy with the High Court verdict
which commuted the capital punishment of six accused to life
imprisonment and demanded that Maharashtra government file an appeal
in this regard.

"The court decision was unexpected. The Maharashtra Government should
now go in for appeal against the HC order to give me justice,"
Bhotmange told reporters outside the court.

Not a single person has been confirmed death sentence which was
unfortunate, he added.

Defence lawyers Sudeep Jaiswal and Neeraj Khandewale were extremely
happy over the judgement.

"Our stand has been vindicated for the second time, first at special
court in Bhandara which awarded death sentence to six accused and gave
lifer to remaining two. And now today at the HC," they said.

Counsel for CBI, Ejaz Khan said prima facie, the court has upheld the
guilt of the accused and the quantum of punishment is the prerogative
of the High Court.

"We are happy, at this stage," he said.

Four members of Bhotmange family were brutally murdered by an angry
mob in Khairlanji village on September 29, 2006.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit cook held captive

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalit-cook-held-captive/articleshow/6168732.cms

Dalit cook held captive
Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 14, 2010, 09.53pm IST

Kanpur: A group of upper caste villagers held captive a cook and
school teachers after they came to know that the woman who was
preparing food for their children was a Dalit.

The incident took place in Mairakhpur village in Akbarpur police
station limits in Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Dehat), when a group of upper
caste villagers stormed inside a primary school, ransacked and locked
the kitchen, where a Dalit woman, Chandrawati, was preparing food for
the students under mid-day meal scheme.

The Wednesday incident came close on the heels of the violence
reported from Kannauj district, where the villagers had created a
ruckus outside the primary school in Majgaon hamlet under Bahadurpur
gram sabha to register their protest against a Dalit cook, who was
preparing food for the 47-odd children of the school on Saturday last.

The Mairakhpur primary school has a total of 45 students. Out of
which, nearly 35-40 students, mostly belonging to upper castes,
refused to eat food here on Wednesday.

According to reports, the upper caste villagers not only misbehaved
with the Dalit cook but held her as well as the school teachers,
including the headmaster of the school, Anil Kumar, captive for
several hours in protest against the appointment of a Dalit cook to
prepare MDM.

The situation was, however, brought under control when a police team
from Akbarpur police station and officials of the district education
department reached the village and convinced the villagers.

"Angry villagers assembled in front of the primary school after they
came to know that a Dalit woman was preparing mid-day meal for their
children. Later, they went inside the school's kitchen where she was
preparing mid-day meal and locked it from outside. They also
misbehaved with school teachers before holding them captive, when they
tried to intervene,'' a Dalit villager, on condition of anonymity,
told TOI.

The police, however, said, no action has yet been initiated against
the persons who created the ruckus.

When contacted, basic shiksha adhikari, Ramabai Nagar district, Sanjai
Shukla, however, said, "We have visited Mairakhpur primary school and
those responsible for inciting the students have been identified. They
had apparently bolted the school kitchen from outside, where the Dalit
cook was preparing `kheer' for schoolchildren under mid-day meal
project. They further forced the children to boycott the meal. We
would inquire into the incident and those responsible for it would
face serious action,'' he said.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit cooks replaced by upper caste cooks

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalits-replaced-by/articleshow/6168731.cms

Dalits replaced by
Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 14, 2010, 09.53pm IST

KANPUR: In order to pacify the growing resentment against Dalit cooks,
the government, reportedly, on Wednesday, asked such primary schools
where upper caste villagers are boycotting the mid-day meal scheme to
appoint upper caste cooks.

"We are identifying such schools where upper caste children have been
boycotting MDM scheme following appointment of a Dalit cook. To
counter the situation, now they (Dalits) would not be involved in
cooking the food and instead be assigned other tasks, like cleaning
and washing of the utensils, besides other odd jobs at the school,"
said a senior official, on condition of anonymity. "School authorities
have assured the upper caste villagers that there would be no
caste-contamination," he added.

Most of the students belonging to the upper castes were not ready to
eat food cooked by Dalits in majority of the primary schools in Rama
Bai Nagar district since the beginning of the new academic session in
2010. "Now that the schools have been asked to appoint upper caste
cooks, we hope the students would accept the mid-day meal,'' said a
senior official in the district.

The villagers have been told that the head cook, belonging to an upper
caste, would supervise the cooking. The head cook is more than willing
to go along. "I would do anything they ask me. After all, my own
children also study in the same school," an upper caste cook told TOI.

Nirmala Devi, headmistress of one such school in Jhinjhak block of the
district, said that upper caste children were not eating mid-day meals
but now with the appointment of upper caste cooks, the school has
started witnessing a good presence of upper caste students, who were
boycotting their classes earlier over the issue. "Their parents were
responsible for unnecessarily raking up the issue but now as an upper
caste cook has replaced the Dalit cook following a meeting of
village-level committee, comprising village pradhan, Aanganbadi
teachers as well as parents, we are expecting that the situation would
improve gradually," she said.

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji murders: Dalit killers escape death

[ZESTCaste] Khap panchayats conceal caste issue by bringing up gotra, says Brinda

[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji case: Dalit leaders want death for killers

[ZESTCaste] Dalit cook held captive

[ZESTCaste] Dalit cooks replaced by upper caste cooks

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