In #UttarPradesh‘s #Varanasi, a #Dalit student, resident of #Ahmedabad, #Gujarat, currently pursuing masters from #BHU, Varanasi was allegedly abused, assaulted and attempts of unnatural sex by pulling off his pant was made on him in the university hostel by two suspects on March… pic.twitter.com/kswRdrbbPP

— Hate Detector (@HateDetectors) April 1, 2024

On March 31, the written police complaint was filed at the Lanka Police Station in the said matter. As per the details of the incident provided in The Mooknayak, the said incident of physical and sexual abuse took place in Rajaram Hostel of BHU. The victim is enrolled in the MA course in Sociology.

The victim, while speaking to The Mooknayak, recounted the incident. He provided that the accused had forcefully grabbed him behind as there was a power outage in his room. As per the report, the victim stated “I am a student of MA Sociology. I hail from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. On Sunday night, around 02:45 a.m., there was a sudden power outage in one lobby of Rajaram Hostel, while the other lobby had electricity. I was studying in my room when suddenly the room plunged into darkness. Upon investigation, I found that the MCB had tripped. As I bent down to reset it, a student from the MPIMIR course grabbed me from behind.”

The victim further provided how he resisted the attempts made by the accused to remove the victim’s pants, as a result of which the accused smacked the victim’s head against the wall. Pursuant to the same, the victim fell. As per the victim, it was then that the accused tried to forcefully sodomize the victim. Upon facing resistance by the victim, the accused assaulted and abused him and even gave death threats.

“I somehow managed to escape, but he followed me into the room. He forcibly pulled down my pants while continuing to abuse me. When I resisted, he hit me with slaps and punches. He also snatched my phone and held me captive inside the room for an hour”, the victim stated while speaking to The Mooknayak.

Alerted by the cries of the victim, other students came to his rescue. Pursuant to the same, the hostel warden and the proctorial board were informed about the incident, as provided by the victim.

“The proctorial board team reached Rajaram Hostel and rescued me at 4 a.m. The warden and the proctorial board then took me to the trauma centre, where I received medical treatment.”

The victim has asserted that if adequate action is not taken in the said case, he will leave the campus. As per the report of The Mooknayak, the Victim provided that “I have filed a written complaint and am awaiting the filing of an FIR. If the FIR is not registered, I will leave the campus.”

Reaction of the police:

The police have assured that they will investigate the matter and take appropriate action. Speaking to The Mooknayak, Shivakant Mishra, the Station Officer of the Lanka police station, said, “This appears to be a case of physical assault. The police have interviewed the victim and other students at the hostel. The matter is under investigation.”

History of sexual violence cases at BHU:

In November of 2023, a case of alleged gang rape and sexual violence of a 20-year-old student was reported from the campus of Indian Institute of Technology- Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU). According to the complaint lodged by the victim on November 2, she was out with a friend on the IIT-BHU campus on the night of November 1 when the incident took place. The duo was near the Karman Baba temple when three men came there on a motorcycle and forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her after separating her from her friend. The three accused then stripped the victim, made a video of her and clicked photos. As per her complaint, she was let go after 15 minutes. The three accused took her phone number, the complaint stated. Based on the complaint, a FIR had been lodged. Later, on November 8, the survivor had recorded her statement before the magistrate and the police investigating officer, which resulted in charges pertaining to gang rape being added to the case. (For more details, read here and here) The survivor had also alleged that the incident had been carried out at gunpoint.

Notably, in January 2024, the state police had arrested the three accused. The three men arrested had been identified as Saksham Patel (aged 20) who had studied till class 10, Kunal Pandey (aged 28), who had studied till B. Com graduation course and ran a shop, and Abhishek Chauhan (aged 22), who failed his class 10 examination and worked at a saree shop. It is crucial to highlight here that at least two of the three men arrested are associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell in Varanasi.

In July 2023, two men were booked by the Varanasi police after a female student of BHU had alleged that she was sexually harassed and thrashed by a group of male students inside the BHU cyber library. As per her complaint, the group had also assaulted her on the route to the central library on the campus. As per the report of Times of India, in her complaint, the 28-year-student alleged that she was busy studying at the cyber library on Saturday afternoon when accused Saurabh Rai and his accomplices reached there and started misbehaving with her. Following this, she was forced to leave the library. As she left, Rai and his accomplices had chased her and subjected her to abuse. Notably, based on the complaint, the Lanka police had immediately lodged a FIR against the accused under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (outraging modesty of woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.

Prior to this, a similar sexual harassment incident had also taken place at the IIT-BHU campus in 2017 also which had resulted in massive protests. In the said incident, notably, the Varanasi police had filed charges of arson and other crimes against 1,200 protesting BHU students. In September 2017, a BHU student of the Arts Faculty was allegedly harassed by three motorcycle-borne men inside the campus when she was returning to the Triveni Hostel. The student alleged that instead of raising the matter with university authorities, the hostel warden questioned her why she was returning so late. Hundreds of students sat on protest in the campus after this string of events in protest against lack of safety and alleged victim shaming. In reaction to the incident, the Vice Chancellor G C Tripathi had said “Boys will be boys. Forget about what happened. Why don’t you stop stepping out after 6 pm if you dislike such things? You are a girl, don’t try to become a boy (by stepping out after sunset).” Notably, the Varanasi police had filed charges of arson and other crimes against 1,200 protesting BHU students.

Not the first attack on Dalits in BHU:

In May 2023, a Dalit assistant professor at BHU had accused two other assistant professors and two students of assaulting, molesting and humiliating her. Notably, a first information report based on her complaint had been lodged in Varanasi on August 27, over three months after the incident allegedly occurred. The complainant had alleged that the police had filed a case only after she had written to the Human Resource and Development Ministry, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission, and the Chief Minister’s Office.

The complainant had provided then that a dispute had begun after she refused to remove a person from his post despite pressure from the accused persons. She alleged that the accused persons targeted her as she was a Dalit. According to the complaint, the accused persons “regularly talked about stripping her and making her do rounds of the university”. The assistant professor added that on May 22, one of the accused persons came to her chamber, threatened to have her removed from her post, and to kill her.

According to a report of Scroll, the police had filed a case under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Notably, the accused had also been booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Educational institutes and the culture of caste discrimination:

Atrocities against Dalit students, as has been highlighted in the present case at educational institutions, is not an isolated incident. Dalits have been marginalized for thousands of years and continue to be discriminated against, humiliated, and killed for petty reasons. Even after protests are held after such atrocities against Dalits come to light, the scenario remains the same.

In the month of March 2024 itself, Dalit academician Dr. Ritu Singh, a former assistant professor at the university’s Daulat Ram College was abruptly terminated in 2020. Had expressed her resolution to bring forth the culture of caste discrimination prevailing in colleges and universities of India. As per Singh, her dismissal stemmed from caste-based discrimination, accusing college principal Savita Roy of targeting her due to her Dalit identity. It is essential to note that Singh’s against the castiest structures in higher education system and administration has been ongoing since the last six months.

In October of 2023, several student-led protests had broken out across universities in Uttar Pradesh after University of Allahabad proctor Rakesh Singh was caught in a video launching a violent attack on student Vivek Kumar, who is from a Dalit community. In the video that had gone viral on social media, the accused, Rakesh Singh, can be seen snatching a lathi from a policeman and hitting the student while he raises slogans against the proctor. Kumar could be seen trying to shield himself but Singh had continued to hit him. The accused had only stooped when the policemen had intervened. Former MA student and All India Student Association (AISA) unit president Vivek Kumar had alleged that the said attack had stemmed from a place of discrimination and bias towards marginalised communities.

The video can be viewed here:

इलाहाबाद यूनिवर्सिटी में दलित छात्र विवेक कुमार ने “जातिवादी चीफ़ प्रॉक्टर मुर्दाबाद” का नारा लगाया तो चीफ़ प्रॉक्टर “राकेश सिंह” बिफर पड़े और पुलिस और सुरक्षा कर्मियों के सामने दलित छात्र पर लाठियां भांज दी, वीडियो सोशल मीडिया पर वायरल है #UttarPradesh #allahabaduniversity… pic.twitter.com/IyyiNtB1EN

— Dalit Times | दलित टाइम्स (@DalitTime) October 18, 2023

Related:

IIT-BHU gangrape: 3 accused arrested, at least 2 associated with BJP IT cell of Varanasi

Dalit academic alleges assault, molestation; FIR names 2 faculty, 2 students: BHU

Chennai: Dalit man hacked to death by in-laws due to caste

Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh: 5 Dalit children beaten with sticks, with hands tied behind their back, for drinking water from a well

The post Sexual assault at BHU: Dalit student alleged abuse, assault and attempts of forced sex against another student in hostel appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On January 17, 2018 it will be two years since the ‘institutional murder of Rohith Vemula.’ Hyderabad University will commemorate the second death anniversary of 26-year-old Dalit student Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on campus after alleging that he was being persecuted by university officials on account of his caste. VC Appa Rao Podile temporarily removed by the Modi-Smriti Irani combine when the outrage was at its height, was cynically re-instated in March 2016 after violence was unleashed on students and teachers on campus.
As Rohith’s close associates friends plan to commemorate his death, the sprawling campus is witnessing tensions between the RSS’ touth wing, the ABVP and Dalit students. It was the ABVP that has been largely held responsible for the spate of attacks on Ambedkarite students at the HCU. What has provoked this tension is a cynical Facebook post from two months ago that abuses K Laxminarayana, a professor in the school of economics who is a Dalit. The language used is sic.

“Bastard Laxminarayana now preaching what is saffronisation. He even don’t know basics of Economics and now preaching about Saffronisation. He has became professor only because of his blackmailing tricks.” The invective is the offering of Karan Palsaniya, a PhD student in the History department. He is also a senior leader of the ABVP, not just in Hyderabad – he is a national co-convenor.
 

The pathetic thing is that this comment was posted on a Facebook page handled by a group of students from the university which Professor Laxminarayana has been associated with for nearly 30 years. He is also a former president of the University of Hyderabad Teachers’ Association. Days after the Facebook post, he wrote a formal letter of complaint to the Vice Chancellor, describing it as “highly derogatory, objectionable and targeting my dignity and humble social background from which I rose to the post of professorship”.
The professor requested the university to initiate action against the student. Not surprisingly, he has received no response from the Vice Chancellor, Appa Rao Podile, or any other official. 

The professor says “The questions were in the context of the present government’s educational policies. No one from the University teaching faculty or its officials raised any objections to the questions. So how can a student of some other discipline attack me in this vicious manner? The intent was to humiliate me publicly by using abusive language. It vitiated the atmosphere on the campus. Surely the officials recognise the urgency of resolving such matters especially after Rohith Vemula’s suicide.”
Media reports state that university administration has used the winter break as an excuse saying that this prevented urgent action as requested by the professor and that Mr Palsaniya has been asked to explain his comments to a committee on Wednesday: the second-year anniversary of Rohith Vemula’s death.
It was in August 2015, Vemula was suspended along with four other Dalit students for being “casteist, extremist and anti-national.” The action followed a complaint against him by the ABVP. Vemula was a member of the Ambedkar Students Association. There was a history of strain between the two groups that had been getting tauter. The ABVP said that one of its leaders had been so badly injured by Vemula and his group that he was hospitalized. After his fellowship payment was suspended, Vemula was told to leave his hostel. He moved into a tent on the campus as part of a sit-in protest. In January 2016, he was found dead in a friend’s room in the University; he had hanged himself.

The post Right Wing Student Insults Dalit Prof at HCU appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In yet another incident of caste Hindus attacking Dalits, especially women political workers in Yogi's Uttar Bradesh, Comrade Jeera Bharti, who organises agricultural labourers was abused, thrashed and disrobed by Kurmis of the Mirzapur Block, allegedly Chatru Patel and his men as she was returning to her village on the evening of July 3 with her 14 year old son. The CPI (ML) and AIPWA (All india Progressive Women's Association of Uttar Pradesh will hold a National Protest Against Attack by BJP-Supported Goons on AIPWA and CPI(ML) Leader Comrade Jeera Bharti   

 
 Jeera Bharti is a leader of the CPI(ML) and All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) in Mirzapur, district, Uttar Pradesh. Hailing from the Dalit community, she organizes agricultural labourers – most of whom are women and men from oppressed castes – for their wages, dignity and rights. According to information put out by the CPIML on the night of 3 July, she was returning from the CPIML's Mirzapur Block Office to her village (Riksha Khurd) on her bicycle, with her 14 year-old son. When she reached her village, her way was blocked by Chatru Patel, a local landlord from the dominant Kurmi community, and his family members. He allegedly abused her, grabbed her hair and threw her on the ground. When her son rushed up to his mother’s rescue he too was beaten up. Chatru Patel and his family members including some female members of his family together thrashed Jeera and disrobed her – in the presence of several other people from the local dominant castes. When Jeera dialed the police helpline, but the police took an hour and a half to arrive on the scene.  

The next day, July 4,  Jeera Bharti recorded her FIR at the police station. At this time, it is alleged, that BJP MLA from Marihan, Rama Shankar Patel, himself from the dominant Kurmi community, also came to the police station accompanied by a large number of his supporters. Under this political pressure, the police refused to invoke the relevant sections from the law against violence on women and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act pertaining to disrobing and assaulting a Dalit woman. The organisation has said that " it is shameful but not surprising that a MLA from India’s ruling party should himself demonstrate at a police station to defend people who committed gender and anti-Dalit violence.  "

The BJP MLA Rama Shankar Patel himself has reportedly pending criminal complaints against him of violence against a woman, and his nephew and supporters have pending complaints against them of violence against women and minorities    Significantly, Jeera Bharti was the CPI(ML) candidate in the 2014 Parliamentary elections and enjoys great respect in the area as a strong defender of the rights of workers, women, Dalits and the poor. She led a recent movement for wages of agricultural labourers due to which daily wages were increased to Rs 100. This movement has reportedly enraged the feudal landlords in the area.     

This attack on Jeera Bharti is symptomatic of the manner in which dominant caste and feudal elements feel emboldened by the Yogi regime to launch violent attacks on activists and people from the Dalit community. The attack on Dalits at Saharanpur followed by arrest of the Bhim Army leader; the manner in which people from the Musahar community of Kushinagar were demeaned by giving them soap to ‘clean themselves’ in preparation for Yogi’s visit; preventing Dalit activists from Gujarat from entering Uttar Pradesh because they were preparing to present Yogi with a 125 kg soap cake in response to his act of demeaning the Musahars; and arrest of well-known Dalit activists for holding a press conference has now been followed by the assault on Comrade Jeera Bharti.

All dissenting voices are being gagged and attacked. The CPI(ML) office in Varanasi was raided recently and student and youth activists of AISA and RYA have been arrested and jailed in UP.    
AIPWA will hold demonstrations all over the country on July 6 and 7, demanding that the assailants of Comrade Jeera Bharti be booked under the relevant sections of the SC/ST (PoA) Act and Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013.          

(The information has been put out by Rati Rao, President, AIPWA, Meena Tiwary, General Secretary, AIPWA and Kavita Krishnan, National Secretary, AIPWA )
 

 

The post Dalit Woman Activist Jeera Bharti Abused, Thrashed & Disrobed by Kurmis, BJP MLA Allegedly Joins in Abuse: Mirzapur, UP appeared first on SabrangIndia.