http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/29/stories/2007092961981500.htm
National Fear haunts Khairlanji Dalits Meena Menon Last year on September 29 four Dalits were murdered in the Maharashtra village KHAIRLANJI (Bhandara district): "We are terrified of living here," says Shamkala Meshram. Hers is one of the two Dalit families still living in this village in Maharashtra. Last year, after the murder of four members of the Bhotmange family on September 29, the Meshrams, along with the family of Durvas Khobragade and his sister Panchshila Shende, had asked the government to rehabilitate them somewhere else. However, the district administration forwarded their request to the Director of Social Welfare in Pune in December 2006, but nothing has happened since then. Shamkala and her husband Vinod own 2.5 acres of land. Most of the time they work as daily wage labourers. On the day of the incident on September 29, the Meshrams were away and returned in the evening. "We saw nothing. The police took our statement and that of my three sons since they were at home. But they too saw nothing because it all happened near Bhotmange's house which is further away," she said. "We stay like second class citizens here and we don't talk much," she said. Their family is related to the Bhotmanges and the incident deeply affected them. "I am worried about my three sons. What about their future? Anything can happen here," she added. Her eldest son was in the same college that Priyanka Bhotmange attended. The village is dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and now it is playing politics with the two families. The Meshrams are upset that in the panchayat elections, a member of the Khobragade family, Jayshree, contested with the help of the BJP. She has already been elected unopposed as the seat was reserved for women of the Scheduled Caste. Keys handed over The District Collector Sambhaji Sarkunde on Friday handed over the keys of a flat in the low-income group colony built by the State government to Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, the only surviving member of the Bhotmange family. Mr. Sarkunde told The Hindu that since Bhaiyyalal had refused to pay a portion of the money for the house allotted to him earlier this week, it was decided to give it to him free of cost. On Saturday, Bhaiyyalal will offer "shraddanjali" to his family at Deulgaon where the burial took place. A small ceremony is also planned at Khairlanji. Other meetings have also been organised in Bhandara and Nagpur to mark the first anniversary of the killings. About 20 policemen have been stationed at Khairlanji since last year. Now a platoon of the State reserve police has been added and prohibitory orders have been imposed. Bhotmange's house in Khairlanji is almost falling apart. It remains locked and the single room remains as it was when the family was dragged out and killed on September 29. The courtyard and the cattle shed are overgrown with weeds. A police picket is still stationed outside and every visitor to the village has to make an entry in the register. Normality Things seem to have returned to normal in the village. In the evening, men stand around chatting and you can hear the sounds of television. The five witnesses in the trial here have been given 24-hour protection. Two of them have asked to be relocated. Panchshila Shende, who is an anganwadi sevika, says that on the surface there is no tension but "we can sense the hostility." She lives with her brother Durvas Khobragade who owns 10 acres of land. "After this incident, it is very difficult to get labour. People don't come to work for us. We have to wait till the work is over on everyone else's fields. Then we get labourers and that too we have to pay extra," says Shende. Both Panchshila and her sister-in-law Kausalya remember the Bhotmanges. "The village never let him build a pucca house. The sarpanch refused to give a letter saying that he was a resident of the village. They kept saying this was public land and a house can't be built on it," says Shende. She keeps saying that she wants to work in another village. "I was the only one who has done Montessori training in the village but I got a job as an anganwadi sevika. I wish to work elsewhere. Here my helper is siphoning off the food supplies and putting the blame on me. I am fed up," she says. Police claim The district administration did receive a request for rehabilitation from the Meshram family as well as the Khobragades and Shende but no action has been taken. However, Superintendent of Police (Bhandara) Suresh Sagar said that in a meeting with the Collector, these two families were asked if they wanted to shift out of the village and they had said 'no'. There are over 100 houses in Khairlanji and the majority communities are Kunbi and Kallar, which belong to the Other Backward Classes. In 2006, Bhandara reported 52 cases of atrocities against Dalits. This year there are 30 registered cases, according to Mr. Sagar. After the Khairlanji incident the police conducted a review of the situation in the district and now 15 villages have been identified as sensitive and prone to caste tensions. These villages will be under observation and the local police stations have been asked to make regular visits and ensure that things do not go out of hand. Police inefficiency The Khairlanji case not only exposed the brutal side of caste divisions, but also the abysmal inefficiency of the police and the government. First of all, the police did not respond promptly when called and came too late. They did not even search for the four missing people at night and waited till the bodies surfaced in the canal the next day. Five policemen, including the deputy superintendent of police V. Susatkar, were suspended and face departmental inquiries. Action was also taken against medical officers who did not conduct the post-mortems properly. As a result the bodies had to be exhumed and a second post-mortem was conducted on the two women as rape was suspected. Since then, other cases have been reported in Bhandara and adjoining districts. Poor investigation and low conviction rates only make matters worse.
