Report on physical assault on dalits for land grabbing in NCR

A bizarre event was witnessed in the heart of shining India in the National Capital Region, in which dalits were brutally assaulted for resisting the land grab. The land in question in Ramgarh village in Noida rightfully belongs to them but was sought to be taken away illegally by collusion between builder lobby, administration and local dominating social elite. The incident which on face may look like one off was thoroughly investigated by CPI (ML) fact finding team so as to expose the socio-economic forces at play in the high mark of capitalistic development in the vicinity of national capital. It reflects the tendency of not only utilization of prevailing social order for the purpose of grabbing valuable coveted resources at the cost of the downtrodden but also collaboration between feudal and capitalistic forces to achieve the same.  

In the gruesome incident several dalit families were attacked in broad day light by none other than the pradhan of Ramgarh village (part of Dadri constituency of Gautam Buddha Nagar District in Greater Noida) and his goons. It may seem to be yet another incident however as a result of our fact finding team and its conversations with the dalit community or the valmikis, a few important insights came to the fore. It is well known that the Jaypee and Ansals are names to reckon with in the field related to the construction of high rise apartments, malls etc. The land was supposedly grabbed for the purpose of handing them over to such real estate groups. This is nothing new as several incidents of this nature have occurred before also where coveted land belonging to dalits and marginalised section is taken away for real estate business. The fact of the matter is that the pradhan has secluded this whole dalit community by constructing a seven feet wall around their dwelling unit standing on the piece of land rightfully belonging to them. And shockingly it is the villager’ money (Rs 400/- per head) that the pradhan uses to pay as bribe to patwari to facilitate illegal construction of wall. By ghettoising them, the poor dalits are now forced to live in miserable conditions.

A member of the oppressed dalit community, Brahm Jatav, pointed out to the fact finding team that having all papers relating to the land (measuring around 4.75 bigha; market rate worth 3.5 – 4 crores rupees), he made an application to the SDM on January 2, 2012 to take proper action to handover the land to its right full owner by putting an end to illegal occupation of pradhan and dominating gujjar community. The villagers were soon threatened to withdraw their application as a result of which Brahm Yadav filed an FIR at Dadri Thana on February 1, 2012. In revengeful act he was shot at for notifying the problem to the authorities, but was saved by a fellow villager.  Secondly, during conversation with fact finding team the families of Jatav (dalit) communities reported that while they were being beaten up, their perpetrators repeatedly spoke about the former’s helplessness due to the Samajwadi Party (SP) toppling the BSP in these elections. At a superficial level, it might appear that the SP supporters attacked the Jatavs for not voting the SP candidate. However, a closer look would bring out that poor and vulnerable dalit communities are being persistently beleaguered by the dominant people on the subject of land all over Uttar Pradesh even during BSP rule. For instance, a similar trajectory of illegal acquisition of dalit land can be seen in Bironda, not very far from Ramgarh village.

The whole incident of the powerful in the village acquiring forcibly the dalit lands has seen the land being sold out to an outsider named Firay. And the dalit families have been ultimately at the receiving end of this all. In the gruesome attack, against the assertion of dalits for their rights, on March 14, 2012 in broad daylight, some 20-25 men and women headed by the village pradhan, Kuldeep Bhati, walked throughout the village and battered the vulnerable dalit villagers, belonging to the Jatav community, with pistols, iron pipes and rods, axes and lathis, accompanied by death threats and filthy verbal casteist abuses. Many of them who were injured had to be hospitalised. Satpal (in his early thirties), a construction worker, was attacked by goons with iron rods and axe. Satpal was kept in the ICU for few days, where he was diagnosed with a broken skull, fractured leg and blood deficiency. Even the old and women were not spared. Pirkashi, a 50-year-old woman has incurred stitches on her head and a plaster on her left hand along with a rod. Rohit (17 years), Parkashi’s son, was beaten up by pradhan Kuldeep Bhati’s goons while he was on the way back home. He would not be able to sit for his matriculation examination. His brother Niraj (24 years) was axed on the head. Fakira, an elderly person of 80 years, was also ruthlessly beaten up by iron rods. His neighbour, Mangtey, a landless labourer, was also callously thrashed, leaving him with a fractured hand, while he was on the way to his workplace. Stitches on his head were clearly visible. Several women including Sushila (40 –45 years), Jagmiri (around 45 years), Usha (35 – 36 years), Babita (38 years), Babli (18 years), Bobby (19 years) were also being beaten up by men from the dominant community, and subjected to verbal sexual abuse.

After the fact finding the CPI(ML) embark on mobilizing the public opinion against the atrocious act by organizing the protest demo and submitting the memorandum to the collector with the demand that all those accused in the incident of violence on Dalits on March 14 at Ramgarh village are arrested without delay, and booked under Section 307 and the SC/ST Act; police should take full responsibility for protection of the Dalit community against any act of intimidation; panchayat land must be restored to the Dalits by putting an end to the illegal occupation by the dominating community.  Earlier the leader of CPI (ML) also met SP (Crime) GB Nagar on March 19, 2012 to point out the apathetic and collusive role of police machinery in the whole incident. The cases were booked in such a way that the perpetrators of the crime easily got the bail without even being arrested and are roaming free even after committing such heinous crime. Tension continues to prevail, and the Dalits feel extremely vulnerable since these attackers are yet to face any stern action, and instead they are freely threatening and intimidating the Dalit victims to withdraw their complaints. The CPI (ML) leaders were assured that prompt action within 24 hours will be taken but till date no perpetrator has been jailed in the gruesome crime.

In order to take the struggle forward to ensure justice for the vulnerable dalit community at the receiving end of assault of feudal-capitalistic combine, CPI (ML) has declared to organize a massive protest meeting on April 25 at Ramgarh village. Through the meeting the party seeks to mobilize vulnerable section of the society and unite progressive forces to stand up for their rights, dignity and resist oppression with the objective that struggle for land and dignity can be strengthened.