The Badaun puzzle: Questions that are baffling the police

While the entire nation was outraged over the gangrape and hanging of two Dalit sisters in the Katra Sadatganj village of Badaun district in UP, there are still some pertinent questions about the case that have not been answered convincingly. [caption id=“attachment_1557821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] First of all, one of the most brutal and bizarre aspects of the case was that the girls were hanged from a mango tree 500 metres from their house after they had been raped. A district police official, in a report in The Hindustan Times, said, “Their bodies could have been disposed of in river Ganga that flows nearby or the jungle close by.” This poses the question of why the bodies were hanged from the tree in a move that seems to suggest that the perpetrators were sending a message of sorts. “Maybe they wanted to show it as suicide but it was too close to their houses and that too when the family members of the girls were looking for them all around the village,” the official is quoted as having said in the same report. Moreover, the tree from which the girls were hanged was visible from the house of the main accused, Pappu Yadav, and that of his brothers Avadhesh and Urvesh. Secondly, the police suspect that hanging the girls would have required the effort of 12 or more people. Until now, only five people, including the three Yadav brothers and two policemen namely Sarvesh Yadav and Chatrapal Singh, have been arrested. The report adds that a police official said one of the victims may have known the main accused, Pappu. However, the victims’ family has strongly denied this claim. Thirdly, another report in The Indian Express says that the main accused Pappu claims that he did not rape or murder the younger sister. “Sources said Pappu, 22, one of the three accused brothers, told the police that while he had met the elder girl, who he claimed was a friend, he had not raped or murdered the younger cousin. He reportedly said he went home after meeting the victim, and was arrested the next morning. According to sources, Pappu’s two brothers have denied meeting the girls,” said the report. The report added that Veerpal Yadav, the father of the three Yadav brothers, claimed that his family had been receiving threats from the villagers and had been forced to run away and live in the jungles near the Ganga. However, Veerpal added that Pappu was “adventurous and the naughtiest”. Fourthly, the report adds that according to the post-mortem reports, the girls were alive when they were hanged from the tree. This conclusion was reached by examining post-mortem staining on the victims’ bodies. The stains reveal that the cause of death was asphyxia “due to ante mortem hanging”. Moreover, according to the report, “The tongue was found protruding out, indicating that the hanging led to asphyxia, said officials." The Badaun rape case is not the first one with inefficient investigation which leaves important questions unanswered. Another report in The Indian Express describes how a woman who was gangraped by four men during the Muzaffarnagar riots not only continues to fight for justice eight months later but is facing threats and pressure to withdraw her complaint – from policemen, no less. The report says she was among seven women who were gang-raped during the riots. The other six victims were given protection and compensation by police. However, belonging to a different community, she herself has been denied justice. “On May 29, the victim through her counsel Vrinda Grover and Naseem filed a complaint with the senior superintendent of police, special investigation cell, Muzaffarnagar, alleging that not only have the accused been threatening to kill her but the investigating officer of the case too has been pressuring her to take the complaint back, besides parading her before members of the other community to humiliate her,” said the report. Meanwhile, the one-member inquiry commission under Justice (Retired) Vishnu Sahai set up by the UP government to probe the Muzaffarnagar riots has missed its deadline to file the report. “The commission was constituted on September 9 to probe the Muzaffarnagar violence starting from Kawal incident on August 27 till September 9. Failing to submit the report within the stipulated time of two months, the commission was granted an extension of six months in November last year,” said a report in The Indian Express. The commission is currently hearing depositions. Raising questions on why governments and law enforcement officials lapse into ineffective and sometimes hostile measures while investigating sexual assault cases, an article in The Hindu says the failure to recognize the sexual and basic human rights of women and the exclusion of sexual issues from the Indian education system are at the centre of the problem. “The fact that any girl or woman should now have to fear for her life while performing the simplest daily bodily function of going to the fields to relieve herself speaks of how violence is now part of our new normal,” said the article.