Man made to drink urine for ‘harassing’ woman in Saharanpur: Behind panchayat’s ‘justice’, personal enmity, intimidation

“Four-five men dragged me to the so-called panchayat and accused me of eve-teasing. A fatwa was issued against me and I was made to drink urine and bathe in it and beaten up. I don’t want to live…I’m ashamed and I know justice won’t be served,” said a teary-eyed Suraj, lying in his hospital bed. Seated beside him, his 50-year-old mother recalls the day of the panchayat, “Our mobile phones were taken away and we were locked inside our house…they still haven’t returned Suraj’s phone.”

“He wants to kill himself, I don’t know how to save him once he’s discharged from hospital. The video is shameful. He is worried no one will marry his children.”

Suraj, a father of four said, “This is vendetta…my younger brother contested against the Pradhan and his men in local elections. None of them won, but my brother got more votes. They want us to leave the village and not challenge them. I’m scared for my life.”

Police have filed a case against three persons, including Ashok Pradhan, who heads the village panchayat. “The accused are absconding. A case has been filed and we are probing the matter,” said a police official.

In the village, two policemen have been deployed at a small junction and the sight of any outsider is prompting residents to rush indoors.One of the families told The Indian Express, “Pradhan’s father, uncle and grandfather were village headmen. He’s a de facto Pradhan. We don’t agree with this gundaraaj of making a person drink urine, but we are scared.”

Next door lives the family of the woman, who was allegedly harassed by Suraj on February 28. “We were threatened by the panchayat to say that Suraj harassed our daughter-in-law even though he did not. She was so ashamed that she drank rat poison the next morning. She was in hospital for three days…and has now gone to her mother’s house with her husband and three children,” said a family member. “We are collateral damage in a fight between two families over local elections.”

Saharanpur city circle officer Indu Siddharth said Suraj’s mother had lodged a complaint, alleging that the panchayat made him drink urine. “A section of villagers have alleged that Suraj had some relation with the woman. Both of them are married and have children. Members of the panchayat have told us that when they came to know about this, they warned Suraj,” said Siddharth.

“However, it has been alleged that Suraj was made to drink urine by members of the panchayat as a punishment. We are looking into the allegations. An FIR has been lodged under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 109 (punishment of abetment) against three people, identified as Ashok, Bharat and Kamal,” she said.

Siddharth added that doctors have said that they did not find traces of poisonous substance in Suraj’s body.

(WITH inputs from ENS, Lucknow)