Mandawali Rasoolpur (Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh): Clad in colourful sarees and with laughter on their faces, women holding huge bundles of grass on their heads walk towards their homes as birds flit past golden wands of wheat in large lush fields and a crimson red sun melts into the evening sky.

This idealised image of rural bliss is perfect for a 40×20 hoarding advertising a government sponsored rural welfare scheme. In fact, the road to Mandawali Rasoolpur, a small village in the hinterlands of the Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh, is lined with quite a few hoardings carrying this kind of image. But Mandawali Rasoolpur, like many other villages in India, is not quite as heavenly as the advertisements would like us to believe. In this village, particularly, members of the ‘upper’ caste are working their hardest to punish members of the ‘lower’ caste for actually believing in their constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

The cost of democracy

Members of two castes inhabit Mandawali Rasoolpur – the Jats and the Jatavs. They are equal in terms of population. But almost all the agricultural land is owned by the Jats, who are both socially and politically powerful. And the Jatavs, who are Dalits, are mainly landless peasants who work in these fields. The hierarchy, therefore, is immutable.

About a week before the Gram Panchayat elections in April 2021, one Jatav family decided to assert their freedom of electoral choice. When summoned by Mahesh Chandra, a candidate from the Jat community, and told to vote for him, Shyam Singh, 55, and his son Sheodhyan Singh, 25, told Chandra, “We will not vote for you.” Later, the Singh family campaigned for another contestant. When Chandra won the election and became the village pradhan, Sheodhyan, a member of the Gram Sabha himself, occasionally expressed dissenting opinions on Chandra’s decisions.

Both choice of candidate and dissenting opinions are signs of the fairness of democracy. However, for Chandra and his family, the fact that the Singhs – Dalits – defied them was an insult. For this, the Singhs had to pay.

When I visited Mandawali Rasoolpur on March 16, the Singh family took me to their home and told me exactly how they have paid and are still paying for standing up to Mahesh Chandra.

“The series of onslaughts started on July 22, 2022,” recalled Sheodhyan. “[That was] when the pradhan [Chandra] called for a JCB to dig up the street in front of our house, claiming that the water pipeline was running beneath the neighbouring house, which belongs to my uncle. Though there are many houses across the village through which the pipeline goes, the JCB came specially for us. When we retaliated and got into an altercation with the pradhan, he called the police.”

The police jailed Shyam Singh and his sons Manoj Singh and Sheodhyan Singh for three days under Section 151 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This section charges persons with continuing an assembly of five or more persons after it has been commanded to disperse.

Manoj and Sheodhyan told The Wire, “We were kept in Moradabad jail for three days. It was a cell with an official capacity of around 75 people, but more than 270 people were kept there. There was no place to move even your feet. If you stood, you’d have to remain standing all day long. Those who had enough money were given a little more space, while others had to crouch in corners. Some people slept in the toilet built in the cell. We saw the most inhumane conditions there. We could have managed if it was just us, but watching your father being humiliated and facing abuse shatters you on the inside.”

After their release from jail, the family tried to move on from that humiliation. When a beautiful baby girl was born to Manoj’s wife on August 5, 2022, Shyam Singh, decided to borrow some money from a relative to organise a small celebration. The next day, when he and his wife Shakuntla, 45, returned home on a motorcycle after borrowing Rs 15,000, they were allegedly attacked on the boundary of their village by four men whom they identify as Bhishm, Satendra, Vipin and Deepak.

“Those four men are relatives of Mahesh Chandra. Deepak is his nephew,” said the Singh family.

Shyam Singh recalled, “We fell off the bike. They snatched my mobile and the money I had borrowed. They began abusing me by calling me ‘chamaar’ and started kicking and punching me.”

Shakuntla added, “When I tried to stop them, they threatened to rape me – ‘Tujhe yahi kheech lenge khet mein (We will drag you here in the field)’.”

Shyam Singh continued, “I was beaten so brutally that all my clothes were torn and I lost consciousness.”

“That is when they shouted, ‘Mar gaya (He is dead)’ and ran away,” said Shakuntla.

When Shyam Singh complained to the police, he narrated all the details of the attack, including what the four men had said to Shakuntla and himself. This narrative was included in the first information report (FIR) filed on the basis of the complaint.

Shyam told the police: “They said, ‘You chamar … you don’t know us. We are the men of Pradhan Mahesh Chandra. Till now, only you and your wife have been beaten up. Your boys are still left. Whoever comes in front of us will be killed.’”

The narrative in the FIR continued: “While pointing pistols at us, Satendra and Bhishma said, ‘You son of chamar … you cannot do any harm to us as long as our pradhan Mahesh Chandra is on our side.’”

According to Sheodhyan, the pradhan had threatened his father over a phone call in mid June 2022, because the Singh family hadn’t voted for him. “He threatened to do something that we would never have imagined. My father had that recording on his phone. But the goons snatched that mobile on August 6, 2022,” Sheodhyan said.

The Wire examined both the FIR and the chargesheet in the case. Though the FIR mentioned a charge under section 392 of the IPC – punishment for robbery, a non-bailable offence with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years – this was expunged from the chargesheet. The chargesheet said: “So far, after all the discussion, statements, eye-witnesses/impartial witnesses, inspection of the scene of the incident and CDR of complainant’s mobile number, and other collected evidence, Section 392 of the IPC has not been found to be applicable.”

Raviraj, one of the eyewitnesses in the case, told The Wire, “[The] pradhan threatened me and said, ‘Chamaar ka sath kyun de rahe ho? Jaat ho, jaat ke sath raho (Why are you supporting the Chamaar? You are a Jat. Support Jats).’”

The next day, August 7, 2022, Sheodhyan got a call from Deepak, one of the accused, who admitted to attacking Shyam Singh. Deepak told Sheodhyan, ‘Where are you? I will come and rape your mother … If I see you again in the village, I will shoot you. Call anyone you want – your father or your brother – but I will f*** your sister … If I ever see you bring out your tractor out of your house, I will f*** your mother. If you don’t believe me, test me.’

Referring to the scuffle on July 22, Deepak said, ‘How dare you touch Pradhan ji? I will uproot you from the village.’ He threatened to record the call and show it to anyone who wanted to hear it. He said, ‘Tu, bh**di ke, chamaar hai. Ghar se niklega to mujhse puch kar niklega (You are a chamaar. You have to ask me every time you step out of the house). Tu apni maa ko lekar duniya bhar mein ghoom raha hai. Abhi tak jaton ke palle nahi pada abhi. Abhi iss baat ka saboot dekh lio. Chahe SC/ST act lagwa le. Jo tujhse ho vo dhaara lgwa le. Mai (jail) jaane ko taiyar hu (You have been carrying your mother here and there (asking for justice). You haven’t met the real rage of Jats. You will learn from this. Go get the SC/ST Act imposed on me. I am ready to go to jail).’

The Wire has a recording of this phone call.

Acid attack

On October 5, 2022, at around 5 pm, Shakuntla, along with three other women, went to the fields to cut grass. “Six men, who were hiding in the sugarcane fields nearby, held me,” Shakuntla told The Wire. “Their faces were covered from below the eyes. However, I successfully identified three of them – Bhishm, Deepak, Rahul.” (Bhishm and Deepak had also attacked her husband on August 6.)

She continued, “One of them attacked me with the butt of his pistol. I was made to sniff something, after which I lost consciousness. That’s when they threw acid on me and ran away.”

Shakuntla still has unhealed blisters, burn marks that hurt, and peeled off skin that causes pain, discomfort and excess sensitivity. She showed me the burns on her face, fingers, toes, arms and shoulders. “I lost a toe which melted in the acid,” she said, pointing to her wounded feet. “I long for my skin to grow back.”

The family rushed her to the police station to file an FIR. From there, they took her to the Community Health Centre, Asmauli, which referred her to the District Hospital, Sambhal, which in turn referred her to Pt. Din Dayal Upadhyay District Combined Hospital, Moradabad.

“She was screaming and howling in pain. Her suffering was killing us. She was in so much pain,” said Manoj and Sheodhyan.

“I was in excruciating pain and bleeding badly. It was horrifying and unbearable,” Shakuntla remembered.

The next day, October 6, Chakresh Mishra, the superintendent of police (SP) of Sambhal district, gave a statement to a local media portal. “In a medical [test] done on the woman, we (the police) have learnt that the burns on the woman are not due to acid attack but from electric shock. Preliminary investigation has found her accusations to be false. A detailed investigation is still going on,” Mishra said.

The Wire has a recording of this video.

Mishra’s statement was made well before October 10, when the medical reports, discharge summary and final diagnosis papers were released by the doctors.

Shakuntla asked me, “If a high tension wire (carrying 11,000 volts) falls on a person, won’t the person die?”

Manoj, meanwhile, pulled out a copy of the daily distribution table of October 5 from the records of Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, which was signed by the junior engineer (JE). The document mentions that the power in those high tension wires was cut at 5.15 pm, while the acid attack happened at 5.30 pm.

“JE sir even visited us in the hospital and told us to get the medical done quickly and carefully because he was under a lot of pressure,” said Manoj. “Fifteen days later, when the medical reports came, they confirmed that Shakuntla was suffering from 30% burns due to an acid attack.”

The Wire has copies of the medical reports, discharge summary and final diagnosis papers of Shakuntla’s case, as well as a copy of the daily distribution table by Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited.

Dr Ravinder Kumar, senior consultant (surgery) from Pt. Din Dayal Upadhyay District Combined Hospital, Moradabad, who had treated Shakuntla, refused to comment. However, he confirmed that he had made and signed the medical report which states that this was a case of acid attack.

Sheodhyan said, “On November 27, 2022, the police submitted a final report (FR) on the acid attack case without even informing us. It has been more than three months since then and they are still misleading us. We got to know about the FR only from the Jansunwai portal.”

Manoj added, “My mother and I went to the director general of police, Lucknow. He sent us to the additional director general of police, Bareilly, who in turn sent us to the deputy inspector general (DIG) of police, Moradabad. We visited the DIG three times, but he keeps beating around the bush. There is no door on which we haven’t knocked. No officer to whom we haven’t pleaded.”

Sheodhyan said grimly, “You know what Pushkar Singh Mehra, the then station house officer (SHO) of Anchora Kamboh said to us? His words were – ‘You must have thrown acid on your mother’.”

Pushkar Singh Mehra has since been transferred.

Lowering the shoulders of her kurta, Shakuntla pointed at her wounds. “They still hurt. It feels as if there are fires blazing beneath my skin. Throughout the winter, I could not wear slippers or socks. I could not use a blanket even on the chilliest of nights. My toe is gone,” she said.

Manoj explained what happened to Shakuntla’s toe. “She was wearing a toe ring and the acid was accumulating around it. When I tried to remove the ring, the skin peeled off in my hand. It was as if I was peeling a boiled potato. The bones had melted from the acid.”

Sheodhyan said, “She could not even walk to the bathroom. It was a struggle for her to even place her feet on the floor.”

Shakuntla closed her eyes and mumbled, “Everything has been ruined. I cannot sleep at night because of this pain.”

Sheodhyan was close to tears when he said, “These people should be punished. This should never happen again with anyone. We somehow managed to survive. If they do the same to others who are even poorer than us, how will they survive? They would be forced to kill themselves.”

He added, “Even we felt that way. I was helpless. I couldn’t die, but I had no desire to live either. I thought all the time about killing myself. You tell me. What have they left of us that would give us hope to live?”

After a pause, Sheodhyan answered his own question. “It was such a difficult time that I kept staring at the walls and crying in hiding. We couldn’t cry in front of my mother because she needed our strength. All this happened without any fault of ours. If they had attacked me, I would still have managed. But when someone hurts your parents and you cannot do anything about it, when you knock on all doors pleading for justice, but nobody comes to help, you are shattered.”

“We are Jatavs (Dalits). That is why nothing is happening to them [Chandra and his family]. If we were from an ‘upper’ caste, such a thing would never have happened in the first place. And if it had, we would have had justice by now,” said Shakuntla.

Caste hatred

Mahipal Singh, one of the candidates who stood against Mahesh Chandra in the Gram Pradhan elections, believes that Chandra’s ego cannot cope when a ‘lower’ caste person opposes him.

“His ego was hurt that I – someone from the Vishwakarma/Dalit community – was standing against him in the elections,” said Mahipal Singh. “He would often say  in our gram panchayat meetings, ‘You will have to do what I ask you to’. [Shyam Singh’s family] are warm and friendly people who have never done badly by anyone. They are labourers who are working hard just to make ends meet. But the pradhan wants everyone to idolise him and just because this family refused to bow down, his ego was hurt and he ruined their lives and livelihood.”

When I asked the reason for this arrogance, I received one answer from everyone gathered at Mahipal Singh’s house: “Caste.”

“That caste arrogance and hatred never goes. This family is bearing the brunt of it,” said Mahipal. “I myself was threatened because of that. All the people in the village are disheartened by what is happening in this case. They have had to suffer this because of their caste.”

Mahipal’s father, an old man struggling to walk, said, “Beta, generations will come and go, but this hatred in the ‘upper’ castes (for Dalits) will never go.”

Mahipal said, “People in the village have told me that bribes were offered to the women who were there with Shakuntla ji when acid was thrown on her. If you look at the videos from that day, those women can be seen confirming that she was attacked. But now, their statements have changed. They deny being present at the crime scene. Pradhan has threatened everyone in the village. No one would dare to speak against him.”

Sheodhyan added, “Our neighbours told us that pradhan had threatened them, saying that whoever helps that family will meet the same fate.”

According to Mahipal, Deepak, who had threatened and abused Sheodhyan over a phone call, continues to enjoy impunity because of his privileges – power and caste. “No action was taken against him. All those men – Deepak, Bhishm, etc., are roaming free, without remorse,” said Mahipal.

Both Mahipal and Shyam Singh’s family believe that Mahesh Chandra has support from the district and state administration.

“One of pradhan’s relatives, Harendra Chaudhary, also known as Rinku, was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Asmoli in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022,” said Mahipal.

Sheo and Manoj added, “The pradhan invited him to the village and campaigned vigorously for him. The pradhan organised a sabha to appeal to all the villagers to vote for Harendra.”

The Wire has photographs of the campaign in the village.

Rinku had been the general secretary of the BJP’s Sambhal district unit  in 2020. Though he lost the assembly election in 2022, he remains well connected with the BJP. “That is why the pradhan enjoys support from the administration,” Sheodhyan said.

When I met Mahesh Chandra, the pradhan, he refused to comment, saying that the matter is sub judice and all enquiries should be directed to the police. When I contacted deputy superintendent of police Dr Pradeep Kumar Singh, who is the commanding officer at Bahjoi, the headquarters of Sambhal district, and the investigating officer in these cases, he refused to give a statement over the phone.

Fighting for all

After the acid attack, Shyam Singh’s family fled the village. “Our livelihood was lost,” said Manoj. “Earlier we were landless, but after these incidents, we could not work even as daily wage labourers because almost every other day we had to go to either the doctor or the police or lawyers or the courts, etc. Currently, none of us is working anywhere. We have been using whatever we had saved from those years of  hard work. Almost all our savings have dried up.”

Despite the odds, the family continues to fight with an unwavering spirit. Sheodhyan declared, “They want us to get scared and give up. We are not going to do that. To put it simply, as long as we are alive, the only purpose of our life will be to get justice. This is not only for us but also for future generations, for every poor person, for every Dalit out there.”

Manoj remarked, “Today, it’s us. Tomorrow it will be someone else.”

We had returned to the Singhs’ home, which has been empty since the night of October 5, 2022. As Manoj dusted a chair, he said, his voice cracking, “This used to be our home. All our memories were built here. When pradhan and his people were after us, I had to abandon my wife and new born daughter and search for a new shelter. I can’t even hold my baby in my arms. I miss her all the time.”

Shyam Singh and his family have been on the verge of starvation several times since the acid attack. “There was no income. And on top of that, we had to buy expensive medicines for our mother,” said Manoj. “All our savings were going there. For a few days, we stayed at a relative’s house. But they are also daily wage workers. How long could they have kept us? We would somehow manage to arrange some food for our mother so she could take her medicines. And then, all of us would sleep on empty stomachs.”

The brothers remain resolved to fight the war for justice. “Even if one of us dies on this road to justice, it is not a problem. At least our family will be able to come back to the village and live with respect and dignity,” said Sheodhyan.

Their motivation never falters because it is inspired by the lives of social reformist B.R. Ambedkar and freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. “They lived and died for society. Why can’t I do my small bit?” said Sheodhyan. “Baba Saheb [Ambedkar] ka hum par poora ashirwad hai (We have the blessings of Baba Saheb). We will keep moving. If, despite all these powerful laws, despite a Dalit writing the Constitution of India, this is the condition of Dalits in India, imagine what would have happened if Baba Saheb hadn’t worked for the community.”

Manoj asserted, “Baba Saheb taught us himmat nahi haarni hai (never give up.)”

Sheodhyan had a message for all Dalits and oppressed people fighting for justice. “Don’t lose hope. Keep your faith in the constitution. Whatever happens, don’t step back. Keep up the good fight. We are also doing the same. And, we will keep doing it until our last breath,” he said.

He added, “Our constitution and laws are so empowered that if the police administration used them properly, no atrocity would ever be committed on any Dalit or any poor person. If those in power hadn’t hollowed our constitution, we would never have to hear about acid attacks or rapes or any atrocity on Dalits. We wouldn’t have to hear about the Hathras rape case or the murder of Indra Meghwal – the Dalit child who dared to touch a pot of water, or the murder of the Dalit man who tried to grow a moustache or attacks on Dalits who ride a horse in their wedding.”

As dusk fell, the Singh family prepared to leave. They seldom spend more than a few hours in the village at any time and certainly never after dark. As they locked up the dusty house, Sheodhyan said: “I declared in front of Pushkar Singh Mehra (the then SHO of Anchora Kamboh) that if we don’t get justice, all of us in the family will go to the police station and commit suicide there. History will remember our village with this tale: that there was a man who couldn’t get justice for his mother. He killed himself right in front of the police. And so did his family.”

Astha Savyasachi is a journalist based in New Delhi.