Days after a young couple was set ablaze in Ahmednagar allegedly by relatives opposed to their inter-caste marriage, the Republican Yuva Morcha (RYM), a city-based Dalit outfit, has demanded that the State government declare the district ‘atrocity-prone’.
It has also sought implementation of a scheme designed to reduce caste-tensions and provide security to couples in an inter-caste marriage.
Rahul Dambale, state president of the RYM, said his outfit had mooted the ‘Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jatiya Atyacharmukt Maharashtra’ scheme to free the State from the spectre of caste violence back in 2016.
“There have been two back-to-back incidents arising out of inter-caste marriages in just a week. First, the Ahmednagar incident and then the case of a 19-year-old Pune-based law student filing a criminal writ petition in Bombay High Court against her parents who have allegedly threatened to kill her for having a relationship with a boy from a lower caste,” Mr. Dambale said. Such cases, he added, pointed to the insecurities of both partners involved in the relationship.
Observing that incidents of inter-caste strife had risen in the past five years, Mr. Dambale said RYM’s scheme envisaged resolving incidents at the village and taluk levels before social tensions engulfed the district and the State.
He said members from all castes and communities would be engaged at the gram panchayat level, with vigilant police teams on hand to curb such incidents locally.
However, Mr. Dambale said that despite communication with the administration on this matter, no concrete action had been forthcoming as yet.
Different versions
Meanwhile, the district police is pursuing leads in the Ahmednagar case which could give a new complexion to the case.
Police said on Monday, Mangesh Ransing (23), and his wife Rukmini (19), were allegedly doused in kerosene and set on fire in Ahmednagar’s Nighoj village (in Parner Taluk) by Rukmini’s father and two uncles on May 1.
Rukmini succumbed to her injuries in Pune’s Sassoon Hospital and the police arrested her relatives.
However, police authorities are now probing an angle based on the testimony given by Rukmini’s younger brother, and accounts by other independent eyewitnesses.
“The lady’s brother has alleged that it was Mangesh who set his wife on fire. Some other independent witnesses, too, have pointed us in this direction. At this stage, we cannot come to any conclusion,” Assistant Superintendent of Police, Manish Kalwaniya, told The Hindu .
The police said there were other versions that suggested that Mangesh allegedly harassed his wife and that was the reason she came to her parent’s place.
“Our initial FIR was based on Mangesh’s version of the events. But now, we are checking on accounts that seem to suggest that this may not have been an incident of ‘honour killing’. It is too early to say anything,” said Mr. Kalwaniya.
