Hemender Sharma
CNN-IBN
Piparia (Madhya Pradesh): A 16-year-old Dalit
girl, Asha Katiya, was burnt to death in Piparia
after she allegedly refused to withdraw a rape
case against an upper caste youth.
Asha was sleeping in her house when she was
allegedly set afire on November 21. The girl's
family says an upper caste youth, who was accused
of raping her four years ago is responsible
for the heinous act. They allege he wanted her
to retract her statement and had also been threatening
her.
"My daughter was asleep when Chotte Singh
entered the house. He'd earlier threatened us
with dire consequences if we didn't turn hostile
in the rape case pending against him,"
Asha's father, Ram Pratap says.
Before she died, Asha named Chhote Singh as
the attacker but the police did not take the
accused into custody immediately. It was only
after locals pressurised the police that Singh
was arrested.
"The victim identified the accused before
dying. He's been arrested. If Asha's family
had complained earlier, the tragedy could have
been averted," Sub-divisional Officer,
Piparia, Samar Verma says. In the last few months,
several incidents of violence and discrimination
against Dalits have been reported from Madhya
Pradesh. Recently, a group was allegedly paraded
naked on donkeys in the Chatarpur district after
they refused to give up their land to upper
caste villagers.
(With inputs from Raghvandra Sharma)
