New Delhi: A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri district has sentenced to death three men for the cold-blooded murder of 24 Dalits, including women and children, 44 years ago in what came to be known as the Dehuli massacre. “…They targeted and killed as many Jatavs as they could find,” recorded the court as it pronounced its judgment on Tuesday (March 18).
While sentencing the three surviving accused persons, special judge (dacoity and affected areas) Indira Singh said that the crime brought shame to humanity as well as to the legal system.
“It is a crime which falls in the category of destroying the social structure,” said judge Singh, noting that the murders were committed “as a result of deep rooted caste prejudice” by the dominant Thakurs against the Dalit Jatavs.
She also stressed that none of the convicted persons displayed any form of remorse for their acts. It must be noted that after committing the massacre of the Dalits, which went on for more than two hours, the accused persons did not try to flee from the village. Instead, they leisurely ate their meals at the homes of some local Thakurs.
‘After carrying out dance of death, accused ate food’
“After carrying out this dance of death for two-and-a-half hours, the accused ate food in the same village with full respect, which shows that they did not have any kind of remorse or regret for their crime and they had carried out this incident in a planned manner as part of a conspiracy,” said judge Singh.
The court found Rampal Singh, Ram Sewak and Kaptan Singh guilty of criminal conspiracy and mass murder of 24 Dalits in Dehuli village (at present a part of Firozabad) on November 18, 1981. A total of 17 accused persons went to trial, of which 13 died before the completion of the case, while one was absconding.
On the fateful day in 1981, a group of around 20-21 men, mostly belonging to the dominant Thakur caste, armed with rifles, guns and country-made pistols, and donning khaki uniform of the police, stormed the Jatav (Dalit) locality of Dehuli village and opened fire.
They arrived at around 4-5 pm from the south-east of the village and fired indiscriminately at the Dalits, and even broke into some homes, shooting people. They also looted many of the homes. Six persons, including two female infants, were injured in the shooting.
According to the details of the case, the Thakurs had been harbouring a grudge against some Dalits in the village after four Dalit men had stood as witnesses when two Thakur men had been arrested with weapons during an encounter with police around 15 months before the massacre.
The court observed that the crime was committed by the members of the Thakur community to teach the Jatavs, whom they considered “socially despicable and inferior” a lesson and to spread “panic, terror and fear” in their minds.
Judge Singh said that the killings of the unarmed Dalits, including young men and women, was a “cold-blooded murder.”
‘Rarest of the rare’ crime
“If the court shows leniency in such brutal, cruel and barbaric crimes, then it will be injustice to society and humanity,” said judge Singh, awarding the three surviving accused persons punishment to be hanged till death. She described it as a “rarest of the rare” crime.
“As per the statement given by the witnesses during the trial, after hearing the sound of the gunshots, the women did not hide in their homes to save their lives but pleaded with these people with folded hands to spare their children, but these people did not show any mercy to anyone, whether it was a man, a woman, minors or children,” said the court.
Although the accused persons had no criminal history, they merited the death penalty considering the “exceptional brutality of the crime, the callous manner in which it was committed and the blatant disregard for human life,” said judge Singh.
The judge also contextualised the nature of the crime by viewing it through the ideas of caste-based superiority.
“In the year 1981, when scientific advancements in the form of computers and genetics were taking place in the world, some people were stuck with the ingrained and archaic belief that they are superior only because they were born in a particular caste and therefore no one has the right to go against them. This mindset has remained in the modern era that individuals can despise the dignity of others born in so-called ‘lower’ castes without any adverse consequences,” said judge Singh.
The judge also took note of the lack of remorse among the accused persons. She said that convict Ram Sewak boasted about his Kshatriya background and said that history would speak for itself. None of the convicts showed any remorse and on the contrary their behaviour was arrogant and proud as if they had committed no wrong, said judge Singh.
