India: Four men accused of raping and killing a 9-year-old girl

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The men, who were arrested on August 2, have been formally charged with rape, murder and destruction of evidence, among other crimes, the interior ministry said in a statement. They could face the death penalty if found guilty.
The victim belonged to the Dalit community of India, the most oppressed in the caste-based hierarchy of Hinduism, a senior police official, Ingit Pratap Singh, told CNN. The victim was allegedly raped and killed Aug. 1 in a southwestern district of India’s capital, after fetching water from a crematorium, he said.

Singh claimed that the crematorium priest had called the victim’s mother and shown her the body of her dead son. The priest allegedly told the mother that her daughter had been electrocuted, he added.

Singh said the priest and three other crematorium employees convinced the mother to incinerate the body, saying it would be a nuisance to involve the police. The girl’s body was cremated, with her parents present, she added.

But the incident caused a stir in the village of the victim, where about 200 villagers gathered that night to demand justice. Police then arrested the four men accused of killing the girl, according to Singh.

Days of protests followed in New Delhi, when hundreds of protesters gathered in the victim’s village, demanding accountability for the girl’s death.

Some burned effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as anger grew over her alleged failure to protect young women from the country’s urgent problem of rape.

Twitter is blocking the accounts of the Indian opposition to reveal the identity of a child allegedly raped and murdered

Anil Kumar, a 46-year-old protester, said there was “total illegality” in New Delhi.

“A nine-year-old boy is raped and the administration was asleep,” he said. “We want the harshest punishment for the accused; the government should set an example. Women’s safety cannot be taken lightly.”

The case will be known on Tuesday in a district court and will then be sent to a high-speed court, according to the Interior Ministry statement.

Anti-rape and women’s rights activist Yogita Bhayana said that while the swift position of charges in the case was “very welcoming and progressive,” it was the result of immense pressure on women. the authorities to investigate quickly.

“I welcome the move, but I want all of these cases to be treated the same way this case has been treated,” he said.

Violence against Dalit women and girls

Although India’s caste system was officially abolished in 1950, the 2,000-year-old social hierarchy still exists in the Hindu-majority nation. The caste system classifies Hindus at birth, defining their place in society, what jobs they can do, and with whom they can marry.

Dalits, who make up about 201 million people out of India’s 1.3 billion population, according to government data, are one of the most oppressed groups in the caste system. In the past they have been called “untouchables” and continue to experience rampant discrimination, sexual violence and assault.

According to the latest figures from the National Crime Records Office of India, in 2019 more than 32,000 cases of alleged rape against women were reported. But activists believe the actual figure is much higher, as many do not report it out of fear.

Dalit women are even more marginalized, due to their social status, along with the social stigma and shame involved in reporting sexual assaults.

A litany of violent crimes and sexual assaults on Dalit women and girls has caused outrage in recent years.

A second Dalit woman has died after an alleged group rape, sparking outrage and protests across India
In September last year, gang rape and the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh sparked protests across the country. The incident followed the rape and murder of a 13-year-old Dalit girl in the same state just a month earlier.
In 2019, two Dalit children were allegedly beaten to death after defecating in the open. And in 2018, a 13-year-old girl from a lower caste was beheaded in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, allegedly by an assailant of a higher caste.

Opposition activists and politicians say the crimes reflect an atmosphere of hatred, fueled in part by a rise in Hindu nationalism.

According to a 2020 report by the non-governmental organization Equality Now, the dominant castes use sexual violence to oppress Dalit women and girls.

Her research found that Dalit women and girls in eastern northern Haryana are often denied access to justice in cases of sexual violence because of the “prevalent culture of impunity, especially when the authors are of a dominant caste “.

The organization called on the government to ensure greater accountability of the police and effective enforcement of the law to protect caste-based minorities.

In March last year, then-minor member of the Interior Ministry, G. Kishan Reddy, said in a written response to parliament that the government was “committed to ensuring the protection” of marginalized castes. He added that the laws had been amended in 2015 to strengthen preventive and punitive measures for Dalit crimes.

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