Killing Justice: Vigilantism In Nagpur - Commonwealth Human ...

The police gave little
credence to these stories
and insisted that there
was not even one
complaint of rape and
molestation registered
against Akku.... A
senior police official, who
asked not to be named,
felt that the media were
exaggerating the matter.
Akku went to the woman's house where she lived with her husband
at around 4:00-5:00 in the morning. He knocked sharply at the
door, called out loudly that he was a police official and asked them
to open the door. Once in, he hit the husband on the thigh with a
knife and locked him up in the bathroom. Then he dragged the wife
by her hair to some place where he raped her and then allowed her
to return after 3-4 hours. She did go to Jaripatka police station but
the police there were very insensitive and cruel. They asked her why
Akku had chosen only her house to visit so early in the morning and
suggested that may be she was having an affair with him. After that,
the woman did not pursue the matter.
The police gave little credence to these stories and insisted that there
was not even one complaint of rape and molestation registered
against Akku, except for an old gang-rape case of 1991. Notably, in
this case of 1991 3 both Akku and Vilas Bhande, the lawyer from the
basti are named as the accused. The police had their own
explanations for the lack of registration of rape cases. A senior police
official, who asked not to be named, felt that the media were
exaggerating the matter. He was of the belief that if the basti folk
could summon the courage to register complaints against Akku
about use of obscene language, criminal intimidation and even
extortion of 'petty amounts' like ten or fifty rupees, then surely they
would have summoned the courage to complain about rapes. If
social stigma were a concern, then surely complaints about
molestation at least would have been made. He told us that it was
possible that "one or two women might have been raped", some
might have been molested and yet others might have made their own
compromises to keep Akku happy, but at this stage all this was being
embroidered and clubbed together as numerous rapes.
In reality, it is impossible to judge whether or how many women had
been raped or were the brunt of Akku's unwanted attentions.
Certainly, as mentioned by the police, there were no complaints on
record save the 1991 one. The community concurred that there were
no registered complaints but put it down to the difficulties associated
with filing complaints, let alone proving them. The women who came
forward would have needed extraordinary courage in dealing with
the two fold obstacles of fear of the man and his gang and social
stigma in the community. Their treatment at the hands of the police,
which was so much in keeping with reports of police insensitivity from
across the country, put the final seal on the commonsense of not
reporting harassment or rape.
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