Once again, a Dalit woman was raped at gunpoint because she did not repay a loan

A Dalit woman in Chatra district of Jharkhand was raped at gunpoint by her lender for failing to repay the loan. The woman had repaid the Rs 25,000 she had borrowed from him in small installments. Despite this, the lender entered her house, demanded money and raped her. The incident took place on the evening of May 18 and the woman lodged a complaint at a women’s police station on May 22. However, no police action was taken for 25 days.

Another Dalit woman was raped because she did not repay a loan

The survivor had borrowed Rs 25,000 from Baljeet Yadav, the moneylender from Gadia Village. She was repaying the money in small instalments. However, when Baljeet pressured her to give her phone number, the survivor refused and said she would repay the amount in small instalments.

Despite this, Baljeet persistently asked for her number. Whenever he met her in the village, he would stop and ask for the woman’s phone number. The woman offered to give her her husband’s phone number, but Blajeet threatened to harm her husband. Under pressure, she finally gave her number. After that, Baljeet started calling her continuously. The survivor kept hanging up and harassing and stalking her since May 13.

On the evening of May 18, he forced his way into her house and demanded his money back. Baljeet held the woman at gunpoint and raped her despite her resistance.

He even threatened her not to make a fuss. In her statement, the woman said: “Despite my protests, he held me captive at gunpoint and raped me. After the rape, while leaving the house, Baljeet said that if I raised a cry, he would kill me and my entire family.”

The survivor and her family filed a complaint with the Women’s Police Department, but the case was not registered. The woman herself went to the police station on June 13 to check the status of the complaint, but was turned away and sent back. The woman then wrote an application to the office of the Superintendent of Police. The Superintendent of Police then intervened in the case and Baljeet was arrested on Saturday evening.

“The accused was arrested late on Saturday night. Due to some lapses at the local police station level, the arrest was delayed,” said Sadar SDPO Sandeep Suman. Action will be taken against the police officer in charge of the station in the village.

The SDPO also said that the accused had been produced in court and the woman’s complaint had been registered under Section 164 of CrPC. The investigation is ongoing.

Similar cases of abuse of Dalit women

In a similar incident in 2023, a Dalit woman in Patna, Bihar, was attacked with sticks and stripped naked by the creditors and their assistant. They also allegedly urinated in her mouth. She refused to pay additional interest of Rs 1,500 on the Rs 9,000 she had borrowed and returned it.

In the same year, a sub-inspector in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, was suspended for raping a Dalit woman who approached him with a complaint. The woman faced death threats and was attacked by someone. She approached the officer with her complaint. In the evening, the officer called her to the station and said he would arrest the accused. The woman traveled with him in a car. The officer offered the woman a cold drink laced with drugs. After the woman fell unconscious, he sexually assaulted her.

These incidents show how many powerful people abuse their position to harass women, especially those from lower castes.

Electricity is not enough to protect Dalit women

Dali women are harassed by large sections of society, including police officers, because of their gender and caste. Gender attracts perpetrators and caste blinds them to the laws and their consequences. They assume that “these women” will never go to the police or will never be heard.

Similar thing happened in the Jharkhand rape case too. Though the woman filed a complaint, the women’s welfare police station did not even register a case. If the Dalit woman was not literate enough to file a complaint with the higher officials, the case would never have been solved and she would never have got justice.

It is crucial to end caste and gender discrimination so that Dalit women are not in the headlines every day as the victims of humanity’s new low. Just because a woman is a Dalit, she is deprived of her right to modesty and safety. Her caste may be a part of her identity, but it is not a license to be an easy target.

The views expressed are those of the author.