In Jharkhand, Police Apathy And Bias As Fatal As Hate Crimes
When Sakina Bibi (second from right) saw WhatsApp videos that showed her husband Chiraguddin Ansari being lynched by a mob, she asked her son to rush to the police for help. The police turned up three hours later, by when her husband was dead.
Garhwa district, Jharkhand: An April 2019 incident in western Jharkhand reminded 32-year-old Anita Minj about her own ordeal.
On April 10, four Christian tribals were lynched by a mob of Hindu villagers when they were carving a dead ox in Jurmu village of western Jharkhand’s Gumla district. The mob then dumped the four on the road outside the nearest police station, where they lay for three hours, before the police intervened. One of the four, 58-year-old Prakash Lakda, died on the street outside the police station.
The next day, the police filed a case of cow slaughter against Lakda.
About two years ago, something similar had happened to Anita’s husband, Ramesh–the 37-year-old Oraon tribal was lynched by a mob of armed Hindu villagers, allegedly because he, along with a group of other Oraon tribals, had slaughtered a bull in Barkol village of Garhwa district on August 20, 2017.
It was not the lynching alone that haunted Anita. Immediately after Ramesh was attacked, he was taken to the police station–bruised, battered and bleeding–but not to record his statement against the alleged assaulters. Instead, he was arrested under the Jharkhand Bovine Animal Prohibition of Slaughter Act, 2005, for cow slaughter.
On hearing of the assault the next morning, Anita rushed to the police station. “I saw him in the lock up. He was still bleeding–his leg had a deep gash which had exposed his bone, his fingers were broken. He could barely even speak or stand up.”
Anita’s pleas to get him medical attention were ignored. Two days later, Ramesh died in police custody.
Across Jharkhand–the second deadliest state in terms of religious hate crimes–police investigations in such crimes are often characterised by callousness and partisan behaviour. This apathy can be deadly–FactChecker found at least two cases where victims’ families alleged that delay by the police had led to the victims’ deaths.
Since 2009, Jharkhand has accounted for 14 hate crimes motivated by religion and nine deaths recorded in Hate Crime Watch, a FactChecker database that tracks such crimes. This makes it the second-deadliest state after Uttar Pradesh (23 dead), and all incidents have been reported after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won general and state elections in 2014. This reporting happened on the eve of the recent national elections, where the BJP won 11 of 14 parliamentary seats in Jharkhand.
Nationwide, over a decade to 2019, 93% of 287 hate crimes motivated by religious bias–claiming 98 lives–were reported after 2014, according to Hate Crime Watch.
Victims in Jharkhand must contend with police apathy, often made more potent when combined with religious prejudice.
[ . . .] FULL TEXT HERE: https://factchecker.in/in-jharkhand-police-apathy-and-bias-as-fatal-as-hate-crimes/
[ You can read the first story here, the second here and the third here.]
