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.
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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.
ibn
