The reluctance of the police to register a complaint of sexual abuse, pressure from the perpetrators to settle the incident in the village, even though an arrest warrant was issued by the court, the police did not arrest the accused.
A Dalit married woman from Siraha who was sexually assaulted four months ago was found dead in her home on Tuesday. 24-year-old Anandidevi Saday of Musahar community of Jagatpur Donwari tol of Navrajpur rural municipality-3 of Siraha was found hanging in the afternoon.
Anandi, the mother of a two-year-old daughter, was sexually assaulted by two youths from the village about 4 months ago. For a long time after the sexual abuse, the police did not accept the complaint, but after the complaint, some people were pressuring for settlement. As her husband was working abroad, she was living in Maiti with her daughter.
Anandi went to meet her elder sister who lives in Nargi located in Bariyarpatti rural municipality-1 on December 9. He was surrounded by 22-year-old locals Sanjiv Kumar Yadav and 32-year-old Shyamsunder Yadav while he was walking through a pond in the village. According to the victim's family, they offered Anandi to have physical contact. But, when he refused, he forcibly took both his hands and took him to the nearby mango garden.
The two fell on a pile of straw in the garden and tried to force it by tearing the clothes. Anandi resisted and escaped and came home crying, mother Biltoundevi Saday said. On the day of the incident, the mother took her daughter along with her and went to Biltoun area police office Maheshpur Patar to lodge a complaint. But the police did not accept the complaint. As the victim said to 'go to the media', the police filed a complaint against the victim in the forced labor industry only on February 25, two and a half months after the incident.
On the part of the perpetrator, some locals tried to settle the incident in the village. According to mother Biltoun, some people including Narendra Yadav of the village had threatened to take the money and meet in the village and file a case against Nami. "They used to threaten us that they would get some money," she said, "If we don't agree, they would file a case." But the perpetrators have not been arrested. Chief Police Inspector of Maheshpur Patar Police Ravinraj Mainali claims that when the police reached the house of the accused, they were not found. Mainali argued that it took time to register the complaint after the accused party said that they had been framed. "After the complaint came to us, the accused said that he had been framed," says Mainali, "Then it took time to register the case during the investigation."
According to Biltoun, the mother of the deceased, the police have been reluctant to arrest the perpetrators even though they live in the village. "We went to the police to ask for justice, but the police did not count us," she says, "rather than arresting the guilty, we were the ones who were being talked down to." The central spokesperson of Nepal Rashtriya Musahar Sangh, Sunil Sada, alleges that the central spokesperson of Nepal Rashtriya Musahar Sangh has been accused of depressing the victims by entangling them under political pressure. He said that the role of the police in this is very questionable and he has demanded an investigation.
Advocate Ramsufal Saday alleges that the Laxmipur Patari area police office should take responsibility for the incident. "After the incident of sexual abuse, when you have to knock on the door of the police for months for justice, what kind of mental state did the victim have to go through," he said, "In this incident, the delay in taking legal action against the perpetrator seems to have caused more pain to the victim." According to the police, Anandi was found hanging from the roof wrapped in a shawl when no one was home. Chief Superintendent of Police of Siraha District Police Office Anantaram Sharma said that the incident is being investigated. "We have registered the incident and sent the body for post-mortem," he said.
