3 Hindu supremacists arrested for rape, torture, murder of Dalit woman acquitted
In a shocking denial of justice to the victim of a case that sparked outrage across the world, three out of four Hindu supremacist men arrested for the brutal gang-rape, torture, and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh state’s Hathras district were acquitted. The fourth man was convicted only of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. None of the four have been convicted of gang-rape.
Before dying of her injuries two weeks after the attack, the victim reported that four upper-caste Hindu men – Sandeep, Ramu, Lavkush and Ravi – abducted her by dragging her by the scarf around her neck into an isolated field, severely damaging her spinal cord to the point of paralysis. While the men gang-raped her, they made threats against her family and attempted to strangle her, causing her to bite her own tongue to the point of it nearly being severed.
Despite the fact that the victim named all of her attackers, only Sandeep has been convicted.
The case sparked outrage throughout India as well as internationally, with backlash increasing after the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled government of Uttar Pradesh forcibly cremated the victim’s body, without her family’s consent and in their absence, in an attempt to bury the story.
Skeleton of 6-year-old Dalit girl found in Uttar Pradesh, cops begin rape probe
The partial skeleton of a six-year-old Dalit girl was found in a secluded field in Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Uttar Pradesh state, one of the states with the highest rates of Dalit women being raped.
Police officials have said that the girl might have been sexually assaulted before being murdered. Three suspects have been detained for interrogation.
Hindu supremacists throughout India routinely engage in violence against Dalits, who are treated as less than human due to their “low” caste. In 2019, data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau showed that on average, 10 Dalit women are raped every day.
Dalit women were also labeled by the BBC as being “among the most oppressed” groups in the world, due to the fact that Dalit women routinely face stalking, molestation, sexual violence, and threats to their lives.
Modi government suspends foreign funding license of policy research think tank
Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has suspended the foreign funding license of one of India’s leading policy research institutions, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR).
The federal government has said that CPR’s registration under the draconian Foreign Contribution Regulatory Act (FCRA) has been suspended for a period of 180 days. The FCRA allows the Hindu supremacist government to block organizations and charities that support minorities from receiving overseas funding.
The license suspension comes soon after the CPR, along with the non-governmental organization Oxfam India, were raided by the tax department in September last year.
Non-profit organizations have alleged that the Modi government was using the FCRA law to target them. The draconian law has led to the shutdown of several minority-run charities and human rights groups, including Amnesty International’s India offices.
The FCRA was repeatedly criticized by a number of democratic nations at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of India. The United States, Australia, Germany, Ireland, South Korea, and Slovakia all called for either the repeal or the amendment of the FCRA.
Hindu supremacists vandalize Christian stall at book fair in Delhi city
A group of Hindu supremacists vandalized a book stall at a book fair in the Indian capital of Delhi after taking offense to the distribution of copies of the Bible.
Videos on social media show Hindu supremacists shouting “Jai Shri Ram,” a Hindu religious slogan turned warcry.
“The men accused us of converting people by forcing them to take the books,” said a volunteer who was stationed at the book stall. “We told them that we were only distributing free books to passersby. There are others giving away free texts from other religions. But they didn’t listen.”
While volunteers claim that the Hindu supremacists tore religious books and posters, the police have denied the claim.
Throughout India, Muslims and Christians have suffered physical attacks and arbitrary arrests due to anti-conversion laws. Christians distributing religious pamphlets and Bibles have been attacked and accused of trying to forcibly convert Hindus.
