By Mirza Mosaraf Hossain, TwoCircles.net
The gangrape and murder of a minor Adivasi girl in North Dinajpur in West Bengal has resulted in massive protests across the region and once again highlighted how Adivasis in Bengal continue to be treated as second-class citizens in the state.
The minor girl belonged to Kaderganj village Karandighi block in Bengal’s North Dinajpur district. On November 4, she was brutally gang-raped in her house and subsequently killed during her parents’ absence.
This brutal killing has stirred the sentiments of the whole Adivasi community of the district leading a massive protest on National Highway 34 on Monday. More than five Adivasi community organizations held the protest march of 2500 people calling angrily for the rapists and murderers to be brought to justice.
The same day, five people allegedly accused of committing this heinous crime were arrested by the local police, but anger among the Adivasi communities is yet to subside
On November 4, parents of the deceased participated in a community programme, ‘Eknaam’ held 200 meters away from their house in their village Kaderganj. Her parents went to listen to the programmes and left the daughters home, when they saw that they were sleeping.
According to her mother Arati Hansda, “when we saw Ritika, she was dead. Her body was marked with several scrapes, her throat was smeared with blood and above all, a special kind of grass was there in her head that is found in a nearby place, namely Lichubagan. After visiting the place, we confirmed that she was raped and killed and later she was brought to the house and left there so that her death could look like a heart failure or something like that.”
Local residents informed TwoCircles.net that the murdered minor was a bright student and used to help out in the community by reading aloud and checking letters or other official papers sent to any of her illiterate neighbours. Her mother lamented, “she was the only literate person in our family. She helped our neighbours in any cause relating to reading and writing. But now who will do all those tasks?” She demanded no less than a life sentence for all the accused.
When the news of this incidents reached other Adivasi people in the region, community organisations visited the family of the victim. The Organisations included Adivasi Socio-Educational & Cultural Association (ASECA), Adivasi Mahasabha, Sara Bharat Adivasi Adhikar Mancha, Bhumi Rakha Committee and All India Adivasi Bikash Parishad, All India Santhalis Students and Youth Association of India, Uttar Dinajpur Adivasi Sommonoy Committee, as well as others.
Samuel Mardi, the President of All India Santhali Students and Youth Association of India, said, “when we got to know about the incident, we visited their family and after some discussion with other Adivasi Organisations, we decided to organise a protest march on November 13 after witnessing the inaction of the police administration.” He added, “We submitted a memorandum to the Superintendent of Police, Raiganj whom we demanded to be present at our protesting location in the presence of the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Karandighi block.”
Although the accused have been arrested, the Adivasi organisations expressed deep resentment at the way the police handled their anger. Mardi accused the local police of attacking the Adivasis of the Kaderganj village in order to suppress the issue. When the police of Karandighi police station was asked against about these accusations by TwoCircles.net, the local officials denied any wrongdoing. They also refused the claim of police inaction and said that the police, after arresting five people, is now conducting further investigations to check if there are other persons involved in this case.
The anger among local residents also points out how the Adivasi community has suffered extreme violence in the region. Last July, Raiganj saw close to 30,000 people protest over the molestation of four Adivasi women including two minor girls, which led to the district administration arresting six people in relation to the matter. The locals say that last year’s incident and the incident from November 4 this month, are all ample evidence to prove that the Adivasis of the region continue to remain ignored by the state government and their security remains massively compromised.