National Shame

News brief in The Hindu dated 06-03-2013

In Chhattisgarh, tribal women retract rape charges

Of the six tribal women of Shamsetti village in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh who in 2009 gave statements in court that they had been gang-raped by Salwa Judum functionaries, three have now withdrawn their charges. Three key witnesses — family members of the women — have also retracted their statements.

Some lawyers in Dantewada familiar with the case say that the women are withdrawing due to “severe pressure” from several quarters. Many Salwa Judum members have now been inducted into the regular police force as constables.

The lawyers say that the remaining victims and witnesses may appear in court soon and retract their statements. “It is difficult to say whether their complaints were made under pressure or the withdrawal. But the way they are turning hostile it is a matter of time before the accused, who are on bail, are set free,” said Mamta Sharma, the chief public prosecutor at Dantewada court, who is defending the women.

“Clearly there is severe pressure on these women, else why would they retract their statements?” a lawyer said on condition of anonymity. Sudha Bharadwaj, the lawyer who represented the Shamsetti women in the Konta court where the statements were recorded, said the women and their relatives recorded their statements through a translator in 2009. “The magistrate did not record any unusual demeanour on their part. Surprisingly, in these cases the accused were granted bail even prior to withdrawal, meaning prosecution did not seriously oppose bail and no departmental enquiry, not that I know of, was carried out against the accused, who are State employees,” she said.

In December 2012, The Hindu reported about six tribal women who had come forward to lodge formal complaints of gang rape against Special Police Officers (SPO) of the now defunct anti-Maoist vigilante force Salwa Judum, amidst allegations of hundreds of rapes in the conflict-ridden south Chhattisgarh between 2005 and 2009. With some of them withdrawing their statements now, many in Dantewada, Chattisgarh, are asking if this was yet another instance of miscarriage of justice — one in which the State actively connived.

In the first week of February 2013, Mira and Sanika (names changed) retracted their statements in front of the sessions judge of Dantewada, A. K. Beck. According to their statements given in June 2009 before the judicial magistrate of Konta, Amrit Kerketta, both women, along with four others, had described how they were gang-raped in 2006 by seven SPOs of Sukma district. However, in their latest statements, copies of which are with The Hindu, Mira and Sanika stated that “nothing ever happened” to them. Mira said, “I never went to the police station to complain. I never submitted any complaint letter in the Konta court or made any statement in any court.”

The legal fraternity in Dantewads is questioning the validity of the retractions. “Are we to assume that the magistrate in Konta recorded false statements? Or that the women are faking statements now,” asked a lawyer.

An investigation by The Hindu revealed that one of the accused, Kwashi Mangalram, was picking up the complainants and witnesses from Shamsetti and bringing them to the court.

Mr. Mangalram denied the accusation and said he was not pressurising the women. An SPO-turned-peon in Dornapal School, he said, “I am inspired by Communist thought, you can check with CPI leaders. I am against such actions [rape].”

Last Saturday, at the Dantewada court, another complainant, Era (name changed), retracted her statement. When asked by the court if she knew one of the accused, Madkam Kama, a constable from Erabore, the young Muria Gond girl took a cursory look at him and denied having seen him before hurrying away. However, Era had accused Kama of rape four years ago in court. On Saturday, she denied having made a statement in 2009.

While Era was retracting her statements inside the court, four of the main accused, Kiche Nanda, Biddu Raja, Markam Kama, Kwashi Mangalram — all former SPOs — were seated on a bench outside. Nanda, who headed the dreaded Nanda group at the peak of the Salwa Judum movement, denied his involvement in the gang rape when he spoke to this correspondent in December. Markam Kama, another accused, also refuted the charges against him and said: “I am seeing this girl [Era] for the first time.”

Statue of rape accused adorns this Chhattisgarh village (The Hindu dated 06-03-2013)

At the peak of his career, Surya was accused of several cases of murder, rape and arson, though no formal complaint was lodged. He was made an accused, legally, by one of the women of Shamsetti who now has withdrawn her statement. The villagers claim that he used to visit Shamsetti often, carrying firearms, and threaten the residents quite openly.

A short but sturdy woman, wearing a golden nose ring and a white scarf came out of her mud house and looked straight at this correspondent. “Why have you come here,” she asked in a tone that was anything but polite. “To figure out why rape victims are retracting their statements in court,” we, a reporter from the local press and this correspondent, explained.

She was also told that there are reasons to believe that her name is Mira (name changed) — one of the six women who have retracted their allegation of rape against the Sukma SPOs.

“I have changed my statement,” she nodded in agreement. Asked why she did so, the woman said in almost flawless Hindi that “nothing ever happened” to her. “Because, I am not Mira, I am Madbi [name changed] and I do not know anything about Mira,” the woman said while moving away from us. But her recent statement identifies her as Mira alias Madbi and moreover, the 2009 statement in Konta court has her photograph on it, which establishes her identity, she was told. “How many more times will you people come to ask the same questions! Go away,” her voice choked as she disappeared into the room.

Her husband, Lakshman Soni (name changed) and the father in-law remained unmoved. A middle- aged man, who identified himself as the uncle of Mr. Soni, tried to calm things down. “It was a 2006 case; we had no plans to revive it. The human rights activists asked us to record our statements. Once the statements were recorded in 2009, everyone disappeared leaving us to deal [with the SPOs],” said a relative of the family.

The father of Era, another rape victim, also acknowledged that his wife and daughter went to the court to retract statements.

The villagers, however, did not deny that the entire village and the victims in particular were under ‘severe pressure’ for registering statements against the SPOs. The village next to Shamsetti, Misma, belongs to Kartam Surya — the most dreaded SPO-turned-constable of the area — who was killed in early 2012. At the peak of his career, Surya was allegedly involved in murder, rape and arson, though no formal complaint was lodged. He was made an accused, legally, by one of the women of Shamsetti who now has withdrawn her statement. The villagers claim that he used to visit Shamsetti often, carrying firearms, and threaten the residents quite openly. “He convinced the girls to withdraw their statements but he got killed,” said a villager who helped the women file the complaints.

His task has been taken up by Kwashi Mangalram, the former SPO who is now with the education department. Mangalram, himself an accused in the Shamsetti rape case, lives in another village adjacent to Shamsetti and ‘takes a stroll every now and then’ in the neighbourhood. Mira told The Hindu that she was ‘picked up from Shamsetti’ by Kwasi Mangalram to testify in court and retract her allegation. Other villagers corroborated her and said that he took the witnesses to court. Mangalram denied the allegation.

However, what Mangalram did not deny was his access to senior police officials in the district. Recently, to mark Kartam Surya’s death anniversary, Surya’s statue was installed in the town of Dornapal in the presence of Sukma’s SP Abhishek Shandilya. Video footage available with The Hindu establishes Mr. Shandilya’s presence at the installation programme, with Mangalram standing next to him.

Undisputed leader, says Sukma SP

Mr. Shandilya told The Hindu on phone that he felt there was “nothing wrong” in installing the statue in Dornapal. “He was the undisputed leader of the area and do not forget that anybody can be made an accused and slapped with false cases. However, the statue was financed by Surya’s family, but I was present at the programme,” he said.

He also said that Shamsetti women’s allegations are ‘false and motivated.’ “Four months back, I held a meeting in Misma, where people from other villages participated. They told me in clear terms that the allegations are false. It seems so to me as well.” Mr. Shandilya denied that the former SPOs were ‘pressurising’ the Shamsetti women to retract their statements.

“At the peak of the [Salwa Judum] movement if they [women] could go to court and file complaints [against SPOs], what stops them from fighting the case now, when there is complete calm in the area,” he asks. According to Mr. Shandilya, the women were “telling the truth now” by retracting their statements.

My letter to The Hindu dated 07-03-2013

This refers to the report “In Chhattisgarh, tribal women retract rape charges” (March 6). The retraction reinforces the constant struggle of tribal and Dalit women against sexual violence, used as a means to suppress them. That three out of six tribal women have withdrawn their charges against Salwa Judum functionaries, allegedly under pressure, implies that they are not worthy of protection from Indian laws and society. Adding insult to injury is the statue of a rape accused put up in Dornapal.

Can the accused be absolved and glorified even if the rape victims withdraw their charges? The treatment meted out to the women is in blatant disregard of human rights standards. The rape victims should have been provided adequate legal advice. Their allegations should be investigated by an agency which is not under the State police.