Pune: Three youths from the Kanjarbhat community were beaten by members of their community’s ‘caste panchayat’ in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area of the city on Sunday night for speaking out against the practice of conducting a bridal ‘virginity test’.
An FIR under Sections 143, 147, 149 (pertaining to rioting and unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was lodged against 40 persons at the Pimpri police station on Monday. Two persons have been arrested so far.
The police acted on the complaint of Prashant Indrekar, who along with his cousin Saurabh Machhle and Prashant Tamchikar, was roughed up for opposing the panchayat’s practices.
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Assembly of elders
According to the police, the incident occurred around 11.30 p.m. on Sunday night. “A caste tribunal of the Kanjarbhat community assembled after a community marriage on Sunday night, where the ‘elders’ decreed that the bride had to take a virginity test. A number of panchayat members also vented their ire against Indrekar and his friends, who were present, for their campaign on social media speaking out against such practices,” said a senior official at the Pimpri police station.
As the argument heated up some 40 people swooped down on the three youths and hit them using fists and other blunt objects.
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“They panchayat members demanded to know why we were bent upon ‘violating’ the tradition of the community by speaking on television and social media, against long-standing customs” said Mr. Indrekar.
In December last year, several progressive youngsters of the community, including Mr. Indrekar, created a WhatsApp group ‘Stop the V-Ritual’ which elicited enthusiastic response.
Mr. Tamchikar, student of TISS in Mumbai, is a co-creator of the group. The move has been strongly backed by Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS).
The regressive practice of a bridal ‘virginity test’ is rife within the Kanjarbhat community and is forcibly imposed through the diktats of illegal caste tribunals.
In it, a newly-married couple is generally taken to a hotel room and the groom is given a white bed-sheet and asked to use it during consummation.
If the groom displays a bedsheet with blood stains on it, the bride is believed to have ‘passed’ the test. If the bedsheet has no blood stains, the bride is accused by the tribunal of physical relationships in the past.
“In many instances, caste panchayat members actually sit outside the room during the act of sexual intercourse on the wedding night. It is to put an end to this degrading and demeaning practice and to preserve our dignity that we began the WhatsAppgroup,” said Mr. Indrekar.
Last year, on November 25, Siddhant Indrekar (21), a resident of Kanjarbhat Nagar in Yerwada, had lodged a complaint against the caste panchayat at the Vishrantwadi police station.
“Police are tardy in taking action in such cases despite ample proof against the caste panchayats, including demanding money for various rituals. But they often do not register such cases under the Social Boycott Act. How long must progressive members within such communities pay with their life and security before cases are lodged under the new law,” asked Nandini Jadhav of the MANS.
In 2015, former Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Kavichand Bhat was arrested by the Aurangabad police for extorting money from a woman in lieu for withdrawing a social boycott call against her.
Mr. Bhat was an ‘elder’ of an illicit caste panchayat of the Kanjarbhat community and was notorious for his complicity in several social boycott cases.