A 35-year-old Dalit woman in Rajasthan’s Churu has claimed that she was gang raped by nine policemen, including the station house officer (SHO) of the Sardarshahar police station, for several days after she was taken into custody on July 3.She has claimed that her 22-year-old brother-in-law died in police custody on July 6 and that the police burnt his body late on July 7 to remove all evidence. The family has alleged that the police had deliberately charged them with theft.
Speaking to The Wire, the woman’s husband said the police took him into custody on June 30 in a six-month-old case of theft. “Earlier, they had nabbed some other person in relation to this case and later came looking for my brother. On July 3, they came to our place with my brother and took my wife along. Even after the death of my brother, the police wrongfully confined my wife for several days and gang raped her.”
The woman has written a letter to chief minister Ashok Gehlot, requesting that an FIR be lodged in the matter. “When I met him [brother-in-law] at the station on July 3, he told me how he was severely beaten up in custody. I saw the policemen beating him to death on the evening of July 6 and later, they forcibly took the signatures of our family members to seek approval of their act,” the letter says.