Hindu leader rapes a boy, his body is forced to be cremated
A number of residents of the Dalits, the lowest caste in India, staged demonstrations demanding justice. Four days of mass demonstrations to protest the alleged rape, murder and forced cremation of a nine-year-old boy in the Indian capital Delhi.
The child's parents accused a Hindu religious leader and three others of assaulting the child while he was fetching drinking water from a dispenser in a crematorium.
The child's mother said the crematorium gates were closed and she was threatened when she refused to cremate her daughter.
The Chief Minister of the capital Delhi, Aryind Kejriwal announced that he would launch an investigation into the girl. Kejriwal met with the child's family on Wednesday (04/08).
Meanwhile, the leader of India's national opposition, Rahul Gandhi also met with the child's relatives and promised to fight for justice.
Indian police declared this case a case of mass rape and murder. The men suspected of involvement were later arrested.
The boy's parents who died were part of the Dalits—the lowest caste, a long-lost and marginalized group of people in India. They make a living by begging outside the Sufi Muslim worship building which is located opposite the crematorium in the Nangal area of Delhi City. The boy who died was the only child of the couple.
The child's mother said that she told the boy to fetch water from the crematorium on Sunday (01/08) night.
"When he doesn't come back for more than an hour, I look for him. At the crematorium, I found him lying on the ground. His lips were blue, there was blood under his nose, his hands and arms were bruised and his clothes were wet.” he said as reported by BBC News, Wednesday (4/8).
The child's mother claims the religious leaders and three men there advised against contacting the police because “they [the police] will insist on doing autopsies and stealing her organs and selling them”.
He also alleged that the four men closed the crematorium gates to keep him from leaving while threatening and even trying to bribe him.
At that time, the child's father claimed to have arrived at the crematorium with 150 residents. Most of her daughter's body was already burned.
A number of residents said they contacted the police and tried to extinguish the cremation fire with water, but were only able to save the boy's leg. This means that a post mortem examination to confirm the occurrence of rape cannot be carried out.
According to a police officer, based on information from the child's parents, this incident has been registered as a case of alleged rape, murder and forced cremation.
This incident is similar to the mass rape and murder of a Dalit teenager by four higher caste men in Hathras City, Uttar Pradesh State, last year. The case caused public outrage after police cremated the teenager's body despite his family's opposition.
Similarly, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a cremation site in Delhi, demanding that the suspects be put to death.
Leaders from the Dalit community have also participated in a series of rallies over the past few days. A number of activists and the public also poured their anger on social media.
Some of them called it a caste crime—considering that the religious leaders accused of committing the crime were from the Brahmin caste which was classified as a high caste.
The demonstrators also called for local police officers to be suspended for allegedly intimidating the victim's family.
The governor of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, and senior leader of the Congress Party led by Rahul Gandhi, visited the child's family home. Both offer the family for justice.
Demonstrators from the Congress Party, which is an opposition stronghold in India, set fire to a puppet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They accused Modi of not condemning the crime.
Since the gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012, cases of rape and sexual crimes have been in the spotlight in India.
The 2012 case was met with days of demonstrations and forced parliament to change the law on the crime of rape.
However, there is no sign of crime against women and girls declining.
Based on recent criminal data, one in four rape victims in India is a child. In the majority of cases, the victim knows the perpetrator of the crime.