THEME 1: PERPETRATOR IS KNOWN TO SURVIVOR
CASE STUDY: CASTE-BASED VIOLENCE AS RETALIATION #2
State: Maharashtra
Date of the incident : November 2020
Age of the victim: 20
In November 2020, a young college student from the Chambhar caste visited her uncle’s home to celebrate the Diwali festival in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. He went to the market, leaving his 20-year-old niece alone, and when he returned in the afternoon she had disappeared. Her worried family searched the entire night and the following day lodged a missing persons case.
The police found her unconscious and badly injured by the roadside behind a bus stand She had been poisoned and gangraped. She was taken to a local hospital but her condition was so serious that she had to be moved to another hospital that was better equipped to treat her. Medical staff confirmed she’d been repeatedly raped and had injuries on several parts of her body that were consistent with sexual assault.
While in the ambulance being transferred, she told her relatives that the accused had been harassing her for a long time to “do friendship”. In retaliation to her repeatedly refusing his advances, she said he’d kidnapped her with the help of the two accomplices.
The assailants forcibly drugged her and proceeded to gangrape her throughout the night as well as subjecting her to other forms of phyiscal torture and verbal caste-based abuse. A woman she didn’t know was also present and participated in the assault. At the end of the ordeal, the perpetrators forced the victim to drink poison in order to kill her.
Three days after she was found, the young woman died from her injuries. Her family has lodged an FIR with the police.