Seated amid broken stones strewn outside her house in Deoran village in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district, 28-year-old Sita Rani is numb with shock recalling the shootings just 48 hours ago that snuffed out the lives of her husband Manak Ahirwar, 32, and in-laws Ghamandi, 60, and Raj Pyari, 58. She remembers the morning of October 25 turning tense around 7 a.m. when their neighbour, Jagdish Patel, 48, stormed into their house, accusing Manak of sexually harassing his wife. This was the second time Mr. Patel, who belongs to the Kurmi caste, was visiting the 14-member Dalit household that morning. “His wife alleged that Manak had looked at her with ‘buri niyat (evil intentions)’,” she says, a claim that Manak refuted. “But Jagdish abused him and then went outside.”
He soon returned with a large group of people armed with guns, axes, iron rods and spades, says Ms. Sita Rani. Mr. Patel resumed the argument over the alleged sexual harassment with Manak, who was doing chores outside the house with most of his family members. “Jagdish and his companions said they would report the matter to the police. We agreed with them,” she says.
Moments later, Ms. Sita Rani says, she froze with horror as one of the assailants yelled, “Bandookein chalengi aaj (Guns will be fired today)”. Gunfire rang through the still morning air, killing the three senior members of the Ahirwar family. Manak’s brother, Mahesh, 30, suffered a bullet wound in his leg, but his other brother, Balakdas, their spouses, and six children escaped unhurt.
Unlike many villages in India, where members of the same caste live together in clusters, the Dalit household in Deoran was surrounded by Kurmis, a landowning farming community that belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC). This was a rare arrangement, say residents of the village located nearly 280 km from the State capital, Bhopal. While the police maintain that anger over the alleged sexual harassment led to the murders, survivors of the Ahirwar family say the violence stemmed from a long-standing property dispute. They allege that the Patels wanted to “drive them out” and their caste contributed to the neighbours’ “problem with coexistence”.
Rajbai shows the spot where her family members were shot dead by armed assailants on October 25. | Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI
All seven accused arrested
Rajbai, 24, the wife of Mr. Mahesh, consoles their four-year-old son even as she takes care of her newborn, whom she delivered just a day after the murders. (Mr. Mahesh was discharged on October 31, but he won’t be able to return to work soon as his wound may take longer to heal.)
Ms. Sita Rani, who dropped out of school after Class VI, says Ghamandi stopped working four years ago after suffering a stroke and the three brothers were daily wage workers who took up odd jobs from loading goods to rolling beedis. Her 11-year-old son points to the wall of the house pockmarked with bullet holes and the dried bloodstains on the ground where his father fell while Ms. Sita Rani signs documents brought by panchayat secretary Jhali Patel to secure the ex gratia announced by the State government. Such formalities and queries posed by the police have left her with little time to mourn, she says.
Ms. Sita Rani says there were 15-20 attackers who arrived at their house carrying at least three firearms. However, the FIR that the police filed based on her complaint named only seven accused — Mr. Patel, his wife Vandana, sons Shubham and Saurabh, his uncle Kuddu, nephew Manish, and another relative Ghanshyam — all of whom have been arrested. They have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 294 (using obscene acts and songs), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Manak’s son points to the wall of the house pockmarked with bullet holes. | Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI
Same incident, different versions
Based on police investigations so far, Damoh Superintendent of Police D.R. Tenivaar says Mr. Patel resorted to violence after learning that Manak had been harassing his wife. “Jagdish’s wife had complained to him about Manak. That upset him. In the days leading up to the incident, he had not gone for work [as a private security guard] for the same reason,” Mr. Tenivaar says. According to the police, the attackers had come to kill Manak, but his parents and brother sustained bullet wounds while trying to save him.
Ms. Sita Rani and Ms. Rajbai reject this version. “My husband did not harass anyone from their family,” Ms. Sita Rani says. “I’ve been married to him for 12 years. If he had done anything wrong, wouldn’t I have raised it myself?” She adds that the accused had been eyeing their land and the violence was a fallout of this issue.
The Ahirwars had constructed three houses, each of them distinct from the other, on land that Ghamandi had inherited. The sturdiest among them is a concrete house, locally known as kutir (cottage), which was allotted to Ghamandi under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin). The second one is a mud house, painted in blue and white, with clay roof tiles. The third is a concrete house that has not been plastered. The family of the accused also owns three unplastered houses built around the three Ahirwar homes.
Ms. Sita Rani is unable to recall how the two families started residing so close to each other. As long as she can remember, this living arrangement, and specifically their land, which is spread over a few hundred square feet, has been a bone of contention between the two families. “They wanted to drive us out and usurp our land,” says Ms. Rajbai. “They threatened us on multiple occasions, saying we should leave this house. They did not make an offer to buy it, but just demanded that we pack our bags and leave. I don’t think they realised that we do not have the financial capacity to buy a house anywhere else.”
Ms. Sita Rani steps out to show a portion of one of the houses of the Patels that is “protruding” into their territory. The alleged encroachment dates back to 2012, she says. “All the three Ahirwar brothers had gone to look for work outside Damoh. In their absence, the Patels constructed the house and its rear wall jutted into our land. My elderly in-laws could offer no resistance.”
Mr. Tenivaar, however, denies the caste angle and involvement of more accused in the case. “The police probe so far does not indicate any different angle or more accused apart from the seven named and arrested. Neither has any evidence emerged nor has the victim’s family given a formal statement regarding these allegations. We cannot go and arrest bystanders or others just on the basis of allegations,” the Damoh Superintendent of Police says.
The Ahirwars lived in three houses, each of them distinct from the other, on land that Ghamandi had inherited. | Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI
Caste dynamics
Ms. Sita Rani insists that the family’s caste had a role to play in the violence. “Cordial relations were out of the question as we are from a lower caste. We are also poor, landless and daily wage labourers. They often used casteist slurs while demanding that we vacate the area,” she says.
Village sarpanch Balwansh Rajput and Dhal Chand Ahirwar, the husband of Mr. Rajput’s predecessor, Geeta Rani Ahirwar, say the issue of the alleged encroachment was raised in a panchayat meeting, but Mr. Patel refused to follow the panchayat’s advice to give up his claim on the land.
“Cordial relations [with the Patels] were out of the question as we are from a lower caste. They often used casteist slurs while demanding that we vacate the area”Sita RaniWife of Manak Ahirwar, who was killed in the attack
Mr. Rajput says in the village of 2,279 residents, there are 479 Kurmis and 871 Ahirwars, but members of the OBC group wield more influence owing to their relative prosperity and presence in the administrative set-up. He says only three Ahirwars in the village have any kind of formal employment — two of them work as teachers and one as an anganwadi worker.
Mr. Dhal Chand says caste-based practices are still rampant in the village. For instance, Dalit grooms are not allowed to ride a horse, he says. Some Ahirwars, who have gathered at Mr. Dhal Chand’s house, fear that the murders will turn into a “chest-thumping opportunity for the Kurmis to seek further dominance”. Some members of the Dalit community also question the veracity of the sexual harassment allegation against Manak as “no Dalit will dare to do anything like that with someone from a higher caste”.
Ms. Sita Rani says despite caste tensions, she never imagined that the land row would take a gruesome turn. There was never any violence earlier, she says. Even on the eve of the incident, her family celebrated Deepavali peacefully.
While the Kurmis in the village decline to comment on the alleged land encroachment, they say it is wrong to give the murders a caste angle. “From what we have learnt, the attackers had gone to kill Manak. His parents were accidental casualties. This was not the first time he had harassed Jagdish’s wife. It was a long-standing issue between the two families and had been brought up before the panchayat. The question of caste doesn’t arise. Things may have been different 10-15 years ago, but no form of discrimination or caste violence exists today. People also fear the stringent legal provisions that have been created to safeguard the rights of Dalits and other communities. A few elderly people might be holding on to such old practices but they are exceptions,” says Sonu Patel, 45, a farmer from the village.
Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Rambai Parihar rejects the claim that the shooting was an instance of caste violence. | Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI
Playing politics
According to the Kurmis, they had also taken up the allegations of harassment with the 44-year-old local Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA, Rambai Parihar, who, like the police, rejects the claim that the shooting was an instance of caste violence. However, the issue remains tricky for her. On the one hand, BSP president Mayawati is trying to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State government over the incident. On the other, the alleged murderers are Kurmis, a caste that Ms. Parihar, who is married to a Rajput, was born into. She says while justice should be delivered, there “are many who are cajoling the victim’s family into naming even those who are not linked to the murder”.
“Even the accused are poor milk sellers. You cannot go hanging every Kurmi if one family is accused”Rambai PariharBSP MLA from Pathariya
“Even the accused are poor milk sellers. You cannot go hanging every Kurmi if one family is accused,” Ms. Parihar says. According to the MLA, very few FIRs in cases of caste atrocities have been registered in the area because of “her own intervention”. She insists on amicably resolving such matters instead of approaching the police each time.
Ms. Parihar also warns against politicising the issue. Bhim Army chief and national president of the Azad Samaj Party Chandrashekhar Azad met the family on November 1 and accused the police and the administration of “doing politics” and “committing atrocities” against Dalits. Other groups from Bhopal and Indore, too, have visited Damoh, demanding that compensation of ₹50 lakh should be given for every deceased person in the Ahirwar family. State Transport and Revenue Minister and district in-charge Govind Singh Rajput and Union Minister Prahlad Patel also met the family. Mr. Govind Singh then announced the financial assistance of ₹8 lakh.
Meanwhile, in the village, the police have set up a camp to provide protection to the Ahirwars. They are still vulnerable, say the three policemen stationed at the camp over the past 10 days. For the victim’s family, safety remains their foremost priority even as they question the government’s “inadequate” financial aid. “We want alternative accommodation as the threat of death looms large in the village. The compensation of ₹8 lakh is not fair as it will hardly be enough to raise our children,” says Ms. Sita Rani, who wants to relocate from the land that has “ruined her life”.
The police have set up a camp to provide protection to the Ahirwars. | Photo Credit: A.M. FARUQUI
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