The Dalit families displaced in the wake of the attack on their houses by Jats in Mirchpur village here welcomed the Delhi High Court order convicting 32 people in the eight-year-old case on Friday as “victory of truth” and demanded that they be rehabilitated at the earliest.
Around 250 families had fled the village after a mob of over a thousand people, armed with illegal weapons, gandasis and inflammable materials, attacked Dalit houses on April 21, 2010, allegedly in the presence of the police. A 70-year-old man, Tara Chand, and his differently abled daughter, who belonged to the Valmiki community, were burnt alive in the attack.
Though 30-odd families returned to the village a few months later, the rest remain displaced, including around 80 families staying in jhuggis at the farmhouse of local BSP leader Ved Pal Tanwar on the outskirts of the city since 2011.
Recalling the “torturous” path to justice, Ramesh Kumar (48), a daily wager, said the Jats had gone on the rampage across Haryana after the attack, disrupting road and rail traffic for several days and setting vehicles on fire to put pressure on the administration to let-off those arrested. “As many as 103 men and 14 women were named in the First Information Report, but the names of the women were struck off as part of a conspiracy,” alleged Kumar.
Witnesses threatened
Bani Singh, 70, recalled how the families staged dharna at Hisar’s mini-Secretariat for months and later at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in their quest for justice. “The police lathicharged us and a woman protester died due to injuries,” said Singh, who stays at the farmhouse.
Dalit rights activist Bajrang Indal, working with the displaced families, said many of the witnesses in the case were either threatened to turn hostile or bought over with offers of jobs and ex gratia to weaken the case. “Even the complainant Jaswant and the family of Tara Chand disassociated themselves from the case after they were given jobs and ex gratia,” said Mr. Bindal.
The families at the farmhouse said they only got assurances from successive governments on their rehabilitation all these years, but nothing actually changed. Having left their pucca houses, the families in the farmhouse are forced to live in jhuggis in inhuman conditions and earn their living as daily wagers. Most of the children at the farmhouse were also forced to drop-out and remained unlettered.
On the possibility of ever going back to their village, Dilbagh Singh, 49, said they had given in writing to the court that they be rehabilitated in a separate township. Though the Haryana Chief Minister laid a foundation stone last month for setting up a 10-acre township for them in Dhandoor village, the families are jittery because of delay in start of construction.
Rashtriya Dalit Mahila Andolan convener Sumedha Bodh said the families at the farmhouse had been facing difficulties in getting their children married and still feared for their lives. “The security at the farmhouse is also a concern for the families. A temporary police post has been created but only two policemen are present. The government gives them only 5 kg grains in the name of ration,” said Ms. Bodh.