Skip to main content

Justice eludes murdered Dalit youths' families despite political arbitration

By Adv Mohan Dixit, others* 
In August 2023, 18 year old Dalit youth, Nitin Ahirwar, was lynched by the dominant "lambardars" (upper caste, landed elites - in this case, Thakurs) of Barodiya Naunagir in Sagar, MP. When his mother tried to save him, she too was beaten, her hand was broken and her sari was stripped off. Their home was smashed as was that of Nitin’s uncle Rajendra Ahirwar. Just 9 months after Nitin's murder, his uncle, 26 year old Rajendra Ahirwar, a key witness in his murder was also murdered on 25 May, 2024. 
The next day, Nitin's sister, 20 year old Anjana Ahirwar who was leading the family's relentless pursuit for justice died in highly suspicious circumstances while she was accompanying Rajendra's body back to Barodiya Naunagir, reportedly after “falling out” of the hearse. This terrible chain of events prompted concerned citizens of Madhya Pradesh to constitute a fact-finding team to understand the matter. 
After meeting the affected families, police and administrative personnel as well as several others and studying the relevant documents, the team is now releasing a Report of their findings.
Perhaps due to widespread media scrutiny, Nitin’s murder was followed by several arrests, but there are many lacunae in the investigation . Anjana Ahirwar’s several complaints to senior officials that the family was being pressured to “compromise,” and that the police were protecting a local politician and were delaying the investigation, were ignored. 
Some of the main accused are active in the ruling party and have close ties with local political bigwigs. Sagar is an important political centre of Madhya Pradesh -- as is evidenced by the urgency with which both opposition leaders and the leaders of the ruling party, including Chief Minister, Dr. Mohan Yadav himself visited the area and met the affected family. 
However, the affected families continue to live in fear, there are several gaps in the investigation of Nitin’s murder, 11 persons named by the family as involved in Rajendra's murder have not been arrested. Police personnel were accompanying Anjana when she died. But more than one and a half months after her death, the police remain tight lipped about it, claiming that the investigation is still ongoing. The only official version so far of her falling or jumping out of the hearse is completely unbelievable. 
All circumstances of Anjana's death point towards a conspiracy. Anjana, a second year undergraduate student, was at the forefront of her family's struggle for justice. Be it with dealing with the administration or meeting political leaders. Anjana was forced into this role at the age of 15, when she first fought to file an FIR against local "lambardars" for harassing and beating her -- since then she was subject to constant pressure to drop the matter but refused to do so. 
Anjana was the complainant and the chief witness in her brother Nitin's murder as well as the murder of Rajendra Ahirwar, who named his attackers to Anjana on a phone call just before his death. 
She documented the pressure against her family made by the influential lambardars and the prejudiced nature of investigation by the police in the numerous complaints she made to district authorities. Anjana opposed the bail plea of those accused in Nitin's murder in High Court, and was planning to oppose their bail pleas in Supreme Court before her "accidental death".
This matter requires a thorough and objective investigation - one that the local police is neither equipped for, nor can be trusted to undertake with any objectivity. In our interaction with concerned police officials we found that they are highly biased against the affected families. We recommend that this investigation be undertaken by the CBI, as has been the demand from the affected family since the very beginning.
Ex-Home Minister and Ex-Minister of Urban Development and Housing, the current MLA of Khurai constituency, has in his statements to the media, undermined the seriousness of the matter and betrayed his prejudice against the victims in doing so. After Nitin's death he termed the entire incident as a simple village dispute. After the death of Rajendra and Anjana, he claimed that Rajendra and others were criminals and Anjana had been 'misled' by other criminals. 
In doing so, he deliberately ignored the undeniable facts of the case one of atrocities against Dalits by influential "lambardars", the harassment of a minor girl, the deaths of three Dalit youths, the disrobing and assault on a Dalit woman, and attacks on the home of the affected Dalit family. It is to be noted here that three of the main accused - Komal Thakur and his two sons are BJP leaders and functionaries.
The police are quick to cite the criminal records of Rajendra, Nitin and his brother, Vishnu claiming that the family is being 'used' by another faction opposed to the local 'lambardars'. The fact that the victims may or may not have received assistance from such a faction does not detract from the fact of brutal murders and the continuous harassment faced by the affected family. This points to clear prejudice and bias against the victims, and is deeply worrying.
The root cause of this violence has been the fact that a family of Dalit labourers dared to file FIRs against local 'lambardars', and did not succumb to pressure and threats to drop cases against them - actions which directly threatened the dominance and supremacy of the lambardars. Families of Nitin, Anjana and Rajendra repeatedly expressed their feelings of insecurity, of being vulnerable to further attacks by the village lambardars.
Senior leaders of both the opposition parties and the ruling party are fully aware of the matter. Even after the Chief Minister, Dr Mohan Yadav personally visited the family, as did former Chief Minister Shri Digvijay Singh and several senior Congress leaders, lacunae in the investigations remain and the affected families continue to be vulnerable and afraid . 
We wish to emphasise that the Government of Madhya Pradesh government will be solely responsible for any further violence in the matter or any failures in action taken against the perpetrators.
---
*This is the report of the citizens' fact-finding committee. Other members: Adv Aditya Rawat,  Madhuri (People's Union for Civil Liberties), Anjali (All India Feminist Alliance), Neelu Dahiya (Eka Collective), Nitin (Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan) Rohit, Sadaf Khan (independent journalists)

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Gram sabha as reformer: Mandla’s quiet challenge to the liquor economy

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  This year, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj is organising a two-day PESA Mahotsav in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on 23–24 December 2025. The event marks the passage of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), enacted by Parliament on 24 December 1996 to establish self-governance in Fifth Schedule areas. Scheduled Areas are those notified by the President of India under Article 244(1) read with the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for a distinct framework of governance recognising the autonomy of tribal regions. At present, Fifth Schedule areas exist in ten states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. The PESA Act, 1996 empowers Gram Sabhas—the village assemblies—as the foundation of self-rule in these areas. Among the many powers devolved to them is the authority to take decisions on local matters, including the regulation...
Post a Comment
»

MG-NREGA: A global model still waiting to be fully implemented

By Bharat Dogra  When the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) was introduced in India nearly two decades ago, it drew worldwide attention. The reason was evident. At a time when states across much of the world were retreating from responsibility for livelihoods and welfare, the world’s second most populous country—with nearly two-thirds of its people living in rural or semi-rural areas—committed itself to guaranteeing 100 days of employment a year to its rural population.
Post a Comment
»

Policy changes in rural employment scheme and the politics of nomenclature

By N.S. Venkataraman*  The Government of India has introduced a revised rural employment programme by fine-tuning the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has been in operation for nearly two decades. The MGNREGA scheme guarantees 100 days of employment annually to rural households and has primarily benefited populations in rural areas. The revised programme has been named VB-G RAM–G (Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission – Gramin). The government has stated that the revised scheme incorporates several structural changes, including an increase in guaranteed employment from 100 to 125 days, modifications in the financing pattern, provisions to strengthen unemployment allowances, and penalties for delays in wage payments. Given the extent of these changes, the government has argued that a new name is required to distinguish the revised programme from the existing MGNREGA framework. As has been witnessed in recent years, the introdu...
Post a Comment
»

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.
Post a Comment
»

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.
59 comments
»

Concerns raised over move to rename MGNREGA, critics call it politically motivated

By A Representative   Concerns have been raised over the Union government’s reported move to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), with critics describing it as a politically motivated step rather than an administrative reform. They argue that the proposed change undermines the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and seeks to appropriate credit for a programme whose relevance has been repeatedly demonstrated, particularly during times of crisis.
Post a Comment
»

Rollback of right to work? VB–GRAM G Bill 'dilutes' statutory employment guarantee

By A Representative   The Right to Food Campaign has strongly condemned the passage of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB–GRAM G) Bill, 2025, describing it as a major rollback of workers’ rights and a fundamental dilution of the statutory Right to Work guaranteed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In a statement, the Campaign termed the repeal of MGNREGA a “dark day for workers’ rights” and accused the government of converting a legally enforceable, demand-based employment guarantee into a centralised, discretionary welfare scheme.
Post a Comment
»

Making rigid distinctions between Indian and foreign 'historically untenable'

By A Representative   Oral historian, filmmaker and cultural conservationist Sohail Hashmi has said that everyday practices related to attire, food and architecture in India reflect long histories of interaction and adaptation rather than rigid or exclusionary ideas of identity. He was speaking at a webinar organised by the Indian History Forum (IHF).
Post a Comment
»

India’s Halal economy 'faces an uncertain future' under the new food Bill

By Syed Ali Mujtaba*  The proposed Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2025 marks a decisive shift in India’s food regulation landscape by seeking to place Halal certification exclusively under government control while criminalising all private Halal certification bodies. Although the Bill claims to promote “transparency” and “standardisation,” its structure and implications raise serious concerns about religious freedom, economic marginalisation, and the systematic dismantling of a long-established, Muslim-led Halal ecosystem in India.
Post a Comment
»