Pregnant woman murdered by 'upper-caste' woman, her son in India

Savitri Devi's six-year-old daughter Preeti.

(Web Desk) - The shrouded origins of the caste system in India seem to have originated more than two thousand years ago, where each person is born into an unalterable social status.

The system, which is associated with Hinduism, originally categorized people by their occupations, but soon it became hereditary. This system has been a bane of the society as the entire world is heading towards modernity while India still reports some horrific incidents of clashes between upper and lower castes.

The four primary castes are Brahmin, the priests; Kshatriya, warriors and nobility; Vaisya, farmers, traders and artisans; and Shudra, tenant farmers, and servants. Some people were born outside of (and below) the caste system. They were called "untouchables."

In the Khetalpur Bhansoli village of Uttar Pradesh, with a population of about 3,500 people including 30 percent Dalits, a pregnant woman was killed just for ‘defiling’ a bucket of another woman from an upper caste, according to reports of the local media.

On Oct 15, an over eight-month pregnant Savitri Devi, like most days, was collecting garbage from homes in Khetalpur Bhansoli village in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh when a rickshaw caused her to lose balance.

She had touched a bucket belonging to Anju, an upper caste Thakur.

According to Kusuma Devi, Savitri’s neighbour, Anju angrily stormed towards her, punched her repeatedly in the stomach and banged her head on a wall.

She kept accusing Savitri of defiling her bucket by touching it. Later, Anju’s son Rohit also joined in and beat her with sticks. Six days later, both Savitri and her unborn son were dead.

The postmortem report stated “antemortem head injury” to fully-developed 44 cm male fetus as the cause of her death. Her nine-year-old daughter, Manisha, was accompanying her that day and came running to ask for help. When I and a few other women reached the spot, barely 300 metres away, she was still being thrashed by Anju and Rohit.

Savitri had been earning Rs100 per month by collecting garbage from five upper caste homes; Anju’s was not one of them.

Dilip Kumar, Savitri’s husband, who has two daughters 9 and 6-year-old, said that he took her to the district hospital the same day, but they refused to see her. There was no external bleeding and they said she was fine. I took her home and asked her to rest, but she kept complaining of a severe headache and stomach pain.

When he confronted Anju and her son who beat her, they abused him. Finally, on Oct 18, he went to the Kotwali (rural) police station to file a complaint.

Tapeshwar Sagar, the Station House Officer (SHO) said, “When Kumar approached us on Oct 18 with his wife, we asked her medico-legal test.

The results claimed ‘no injury’. It was only an external examination and there were no wounds, and the results claimed no injury, so we did not file a case then.

Later, on Oct 20, when we visited the village and spoke to the eyewitnesses, we realised that Savitri was assaulted by Anju and her son.

Then, police registered an FIR under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).”

On Oct 21, Savitri’s condition worsened and she fainted. Kumar called for an ambulance to take her to a hospital. When she reached the hospital, she was declared ‘brought dead’.

Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar said, “Since the post-mortem determined head injury as a cause of her death, we have now added IPC sections 304 A (death by negligence), 316 (causing the death of the unborn child by act amounting to culpable homicide) and provisions of SC/ST Act against Anju and her son.

Meanwhile, police have been raiding to arrest Anju and her son.

Like Savitri, there have been many cases in Khetalpur Bhansoli, but the people are unwilling to speak. The ground floor of Anju’s three-storey house is locked. Her daughter Jyoti, who has been temporarily living with the family, is the only one at home and claims she does not know the whereabouts of her mother Anju and her brother Rohit.