:: National Dalit Election Watch

Nirvachan Sadan
Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110001
Tel: 011-23717391 Fax: 011-23713412
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Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners

To
The Station House Officer,
Village Belwa, Varanasi,
Uttar Pradesh.
Date: 17 April, 2009

Subject: Application for registration of FIR against the dominant caste accused persons for mounting undue pressure, threats and thereby preventing Dalits from voting.

The present complaint is filed, seeking indulgence of the police authorities to investigate the matter and register the F.I.R under the relevant provisions of IPC and SC/ST (POA) ACT 1989 and any other law in force relating to the offences of Elections, immediately in the interest of justice.
I, Karan Singh S/o Ramu, belonging to Scheduled Caste (Chamar ), is a permanent resident of House No- 24, Belwa village, which is about 35 kms from Varanasi district head quarters, which comes under the Belwa Panchayat, which comes under the jurisdiction of Belwa police station, is the complainant in the present application.
That this is to inform you that on 17th April, 2009 many of the Dalits from different communities in Belwa Village in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, were not able to cast their vote in general elections due to intimidation by persons belonging to the dominant caste – Jat , namely - Mr. Rajesh ( 39) s/o Karan, Radhasham(40) S/o Shidh Nath, Shekhar (25) s/o Harcharan Patlidar, Ghanshyam(45) s/o Umesh Singh , Dharmender (22) s/o Manghiram, Praveen (22), Raj kumar S/o Kanhaiya Lal , Mukesh s/o Pooran , Bheru Lal (32) s/o Rameshwar , Ghansyam s/o Ram Prasad , all residence of Belwa Village . The reasons are manifold. The lower caste and the backward communities are a source of cheap labour and face all sorts of exploitation. The caste Hindus were afraid that if they are allowed to vote, they would capture power which might eventually put an end to their exploitation.
Fifteen days prior to the elections, Dalits of the village started getting threats in various forms. Mr. Rajesh (39) s/o Karan belonging to Jat Community, R/o Belwa Village, former Village headman who held the post unchallenged for many years sensed a threat to his unchallenged power. Mr. Rajesh and his men threatened the Dalits and told them that if Dalits came to the polling station to cast their votes on the day of polling they would be massacred. In this way they pressurized Dalit villagers not to vote.
On 10th April 2009, at around 11 A.M in the morning , under the leadership of Mr. Rajesh ( 39) s/o Karan , dominant caste villagers belonging to Jat Community , namely - Shekhar (25) s/o Harcharan Patlidar, Ghanshyam(45) s/o Umesh Singh , Dharmender (22) s/o Manghiram, Praveen (22), Raj kumar S/o Kanhaiya Lal , Mukesh s/o Pooran , Bheru Lal (32) s/o Rameshwar , Ghansyam s/o Ram Prasad all R/o Village - Belwa , came to the Dalit Basti and announced that if anyone would caste their vote , their houses would be set on fire.
This intimidation and harassment continued on 12th April ,2009 at around 8.00 A.M the above named perpetrators again came threatened and also used caste discriminatory and abusive words such as “ Chamaro ko vote nahi dene denge” , “ Chamaro ko vote dene ka adikhar nahi hai “ but some how the tension was pacified. The villagers could not lodge complaint to the police officials due to fear.
They even socially boycotted Dalits from purchasing house hold items from the village in order to mount a pressure on Dalits, thereby preventing them from casting their votes. On 12th April when the Dalits namely - Pankaj , Shivshankar s/o Mahipal , Antu s/o Moreshwar , Premlal s/o Dharampal , Vishwanath s/o Parvat , Vishwanath s/o Yuvraj all residence of Belwa village went to purchase house hold items from the local grocery shop belonging to dominant a caste ( Jat ) - Mr. Shiv Shankar who refused to give the house hold items.
So much so that on 15th April, 2009 at around 11.30 pm, the dominant caste ‘Jats’ disconnected the lights in Dalit basti, in order to intimidate and harass Dalits.
On 17 April, 2009, at around 10 AM, on the day of polling, Dalits of the village started pouring in from the morning to the near by Polling booth. But initially many stood behind and watched and once they were sure that no one would attack them ,they formed long queues to cast their vote. At about 1.00 PM , the aides of Mr. Rajesh along with other dominant caste perpetrators of the Belwa Village namely- Radhasham(40) S/o Shidh Nath, Shekhar (25) s/o Harcharan Patlidar, Ghanshyam(45) s/o Umesh Singh , Dharmender (22) s/o Manghiram, Praveen (22), Raj kumar S/o Kanhaiya Lal , Mukesh s/o Pooran , Bheru Lal (32) s/o Rameshwar , Ghansyam s/o Ram Prasad armed with spears, batons, guns, and other sharp- edged weapons in their hands , came to the booth and forced Dalit voters not to cast vote . To our surprise they were not stopped by the police officials present. Mr. Rajesh even grabbed the voting machines and started pushing the button for the candidate of their choice. On refusal to vote for the particular candidate, the perpetrators tried to attack and beat some of the Dalits namely, who are also witness to this incident - Prakash s/o Gulabrao (23), Bhaskar s/o Bhudhaji (38),Gopa s/o sakru (50) Bijnjewar s/o Shatrughn ( 54) , Isaram s/o Dilip Soma (68) , all resident of the Dalit Basti of Village – Belwa.
The incident was also witnessed by the following Dalits of the Dalit basti , namely- Prakash s/o Bhaskar , Bhudhaji s/o Gopal , Shatrughn s/o Isaram , Dilip s/o Sakru , Ganesh s/o Pankaj , Shivshankar s/o Mahipal , Antu s/o Moreshwar , Premlal s/o Dharampal , Vishwanath s/o Parvat , Vishwanath s/o Yuvraj.
Ultimately, being frightened, Dalits of the village ran away from the polling booth to the Dalit basti in order to save their life. Dalits from the Belwa Village including my family left the polling booth with out casting the votes and could not caste votes as per the due process of law.

In the circumstances mentioned above it is requested that an FIR be registered against the accused persons under the following sections of Indian Penal Code

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