UP Shocker: Pregnant Woman Thrashed to Death for ‘Defiling’ Bucket Belonging to Upper Caste Family

“If we don’t work for a living, how will we survive? How will we feed children?” And that is why Savitri Devi, despite of being pregnant, had gone to collect garbage from homes at Khetalpur Bhansoli village in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh at around 9 am on October 15.

While going for work, the 34-year-old woman somehow lost balance and accidentally touched a bucket belonging to one Anju Devi, an upper caste woman belonging to Thakur community.

Savitri did not know that she had ‘defiled’ the bucket and had to pay price for her ‘sin’. She was allegedly beaten with sticks and kicked in the stomach by Anju and her son Rohit Kumar to the extent that she suffered a miscarriage and “ante mortem head injury” at the spot.

She was taken to the district hospital in serious condition but doctors “refused” to see her. There was no external bleeding and they “said she was fine”. But “she kept complaining of severe headache and stomach pain”. Six days after the incident, her condition worsened and she lost consciousness. She was again rushed to another hospital where she was declared brought dead by doctors on October 21.

She had more than eight-month pregnancy and her “fully-developed 44 cm male foetus” was also dead.

When Savitri had gone for work that day, she was accompanied by her nine-year-old daughter, Manisha, who came running to the (Dalit) basti to ask for help.

“When we reached the spot, which is barely 300 metres away, she was still being mercilessly assaulted by the mother-son duo,” her husband Dilip Kumar (30) told NewsClick.

They could do “nothing” but to “plead” them “chhod do, chhod do...dobara ghalti nahin karegi...chhod do, garbhwati hai, jaane do (leave her...she won’t commit this mistake again...she is pregnant, let her go)”.

“Except asking for forgiveness, what we could do. They were upper caste people. When they did not relent, their neighbours pulled them away,” he recalled.  He works as a daily wager at nearby construction sites and earns Rs 250 a day.

Savitri used to collect garbage from five homes belonging to upper caste people for Rs 100 a month and Anju’s was one of them.

Seeing his wife in pain, Dilip decided to take action and went the Kotwali Dehat (rural) police station on October 18 but was allegedly turned away by officials. A complaint was only registered on October 20, a day before Savitri’s death.

The two accused were initially booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Later, sections 304 A (death by negligence), 316 (causing the death of the unborn child by act amounting to culpable homicide) of the IPC and provisions of SC/ST Act were also slapped against the culprits, who are currently absconding.

City Superintendent of Police Praveen Ranjan told NewsClick, “A case has been already been registered against the accused who are absconding from October 18. But we will arrest them soon.”

Asked about the alleged negligence of the police in filing the complaint, he said, “A probe will be conducted by an additional SP-level officer soon.”

But a bizarre reply came from Kotwali (rural) Station House Officer (SHO) Tapeshwar Sagar, who said when asked why the complaint was not filed, “As per the procedure, an MLC (medico-legal case) test was ordered and no injury was found as there was no external wound. So, we did not file a case then.”

Khetalpur Bhansoli village, according to 2011 Census, has a population of 3,313 people. Around 30 percent of them belong to the Dalit community. “Minor disputes,” if locals are to be believed, “keep happening here”. “But this time, they have crossed the limit. They continue to threaten us,” they said.