The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Saturday began their probe into the incident where a 32-year-old Dalit woman, a teacher, was burned alive in Jaipur district’s Raisar village by men who owed her money and had allegedly started harassing her when she asked for it.
Commission chief Vijay Sampla on Saturday visited the village where the crime took place and officially launched the NCSC’s probe into the incident. A statement from his office said that he also met with senior officials in the administration.
Mr. Sampla also met with the Divisional Commissioner, the District Deputy Commissioner and the Rajasthan Director- General of Police, who briefed him on the incident.
The police have so far arrested seven men for the killing. The men are related to her husband, who lodged the complaint after his wife’s death. In the complaint, he said that the victim, 32-year-old Anita Regar, had lent the men around ₹2 lakh. He added that the men had started harassing her when she asked for it back.
The woman was allegedly assaulted on August 10 and passed away during treatment on August 16.
On August 18, the Commission had issued a notice to the Rajasthan police, Jaipur police, local administration and the State government, seeking an action-taken report of the incident within seven days. The notice said that the Commission had taken suo motu cognizance of media reports of the incident and decided to investigate/ inquire into the matter.
In the last week, the Commission had sent two more notices to authorities in Rajasthan with respect to crimes or atrocities against Dalits, one of which was the death of a 9-year-old Dalit boy after being beaten by his school teacher.
Mr. Sampla said that the Commission has been receiving a lot of complaints through phone about caste atrocities in Rajasthan. The Commission is currently preparing to undertake a State-wide survey of Rajasthan, which will entail a detailed inquiry into the state of action taken regarding prevention of atrocities, payment of compensation to victims of atrocities, action taken regarding prohibition of Manual Scavenging etc. It also looks at the penetration of schemes meant for the welfare of SCs. Mr. Sampla said that the review will be undertaken through August 24-25.
