In MP's Sidhi, a Minor Tribal Girl Killed for Refusing Sexual Favours, Family Allege Foul Play

Bhopal: A 17-year-old Kol tribal girl was allegedly choked to death in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district after she turned down the sexual favours offer of an upper caste Thakur community.

According to Sidhi Police, the incident happened at Chirohi village on the intervening night of August 24 and 25 when accused Dharmendra Singh [45] barged into the victim's home with accomplice Dhirendra Singh [43] around midnight, took her to another room and allegedly killed her after brutally assaulting her.

Dharmendra Singh and the victim girl are residents of the same village. As per the allegations, he often forced her to establish illicit relationships, which she used to turn down. On the day of the incident, when the accused took a tip-off that she was having an affair with a neighbour who belongs to her tribe, he couldn't control his anger and barged inside her home that night.

"On Thursday, Dharmendra Singh, along with Dheeraj Singh, barged his way into the house where the girl was sleeping with her sister-in-law. Dharmendra Singh dragged the girl into the adjoining room and beat her to death," said SP Ravindra Verma.

They also threatened the girl's sister-in-law that they would kill her and her children if she spoke in public. After the girl died, the pair allegedly threw her body near a tree. 

"After lodging the FIR next morning under section 302 IPC, Police caught Dharmendra Singh and Dheeraj Singh from their residents, as suspects, who were planning to escape."

The family and the tribal leaders sensed the foul play in the Police's story. They alleged that the accused raped and assaulted her, gouged out her eyes and threw her body near a tree after choking her to death.  

Vivek Kol, a tribal leader who quit the BJP after the Sidhi urinating incident, alleged, "The girl's body was badly bruised with multiple fractures. When we threatened to protest, the Police invoked the sections of POSCO and SC/ST Act, which were not in the preliminary FIR."

They are demanding to invoke the sections of rape and bulldoze the home of both the accused as instructed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the cases of crime against minors or women. 

"Police are trying to play down the incident by twisting the facts and working in favour of the accused," he said, adding that a group of tribal members has submitted a memorandum to SP demanding to bulldoze their homes.

When questioned, SP Verma explained that initially, the FIR was lodged under 302 [Murder] of the IPC, but after the preliminary investigation, facts came to light, section 3/4 of the POCSO Act, along with a relevant section of the SC/ST Act was added.

Verma added that in the short postmortem, rape could not be established, and after a detailed postmortem report is received, the necessary sections will be added.

In the first week of July, a video from Sidhi rocked the nation after an alleged BJP leader, Pravesh Shukla, was caught on camera urinating on the face of a tribal man, Dashmat Rawat. To pacify the anger, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan washed the feet of the victim, razed the home of the accused and sent the latter to jail, invoking sections of stringent NSA 1980.