Muzaffarnagar riots: Three years on, no conviction in gang rape cases
Updated On Feb 14, 2017 01:45 PM IST
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Updated on Feb 14, 2017 01:45 PM IST
In 2013, communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in and around Muzzaffarnagar and Shamli districts in Uttar Pradesh led to the killing 60 people and the displacement of tens of thousands. There were also reports of targeted sexual violence against women: Seven Muslim women came forward to report that they had been gangraped by men from the Jat community. However, to date, there has not been a single conviction in any of the cases, said a new Amnesty International India (AII) report, Losing Faith, The Muzaffarnagar Gang Rape Survivors’ Struggle for Justice, which was released on Thursday. (Ruhani Kaur for Amnesty International India/ HT Photo)
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Updated on Feb 14, 2017 01:45 PM IST
“In Fugana, I used to sew women’s clothes but I have been unwell since the riots,” says Chaman. Her husband, who received threatening calls from the father of one of the accused.She recalls: “… He also said that if he did not manage to kill me, he would file false cases against me.” When Chaman finally got to testify in court, she told them she could not identify the men who had raped her. (Ruhani Kaur for Amnesty International India/ HT Photo)
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The man who delivered milk to Fatima's (name changed) house was one of the men who raped her when the riots broke out. “My daughter was there when it happened. I still remember everything very clearly,” she recalls. Till today there has not been a single conviction in the seven cases of gang rape that during the communal violence in 2013. All the alleged rapists were Jat men and were known to the victims. (Ruhani Kaur for Amnesty International India/ HT Photo)
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Fatima (name changed) earned Rs 3 a piece for stitching blankets during winter but that too is coming to an end. She says, “Indirectly, they send people to ask if we are willing to settle the case by taking some money. We decline their offers.” Her trial, which began in June 2015, is still in the evidence stage. (Ruhani Kaur for Amnesty International India/ HT Photo)
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To burn their chulhas (stoves), her mother-in-law would pull out jhundi (tufts of grass) from the cut sugarcane fields of a neighbour. During the riots, he turned out to be one of her alleged rapists. Displaced from her native village, Fatima (name changed) now lives in a colony that still has the sugarcane fields, but little else. (Ruhani Kaur for Amnesty International India/ HT Photo)
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“We are still scared when our men leave home,” Dilnaz (name changed) says. “People on behalf of the accused… even threatened us with dire consequences. There is no one to take care of my family if anything happens to me… We did what we thought was correct,” her husband told a national daily, after her case ended with the acquittal of the four accused men in January 2016. (Ruhani Kaur for Amnesty International India/ HT Photo)
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