Aug 13, 2004. When the leader of a gang which terrorized Kasturba Nagar (a slum near the city of Nagpur), was on a trial in Nagpur District court, 200 women entered the courtroom equipped with vegetable knives and chilli powder, and stabbed Akku Yadav (the man on trial) to death. One of those women even hacked off his penis with her vegetable knife. And then all of those women surrendered. They were all ready to be arrested.
Why did these women do so? Were they out of their mind? And what did Akku Yadav do to them that these women had to take law in their hands and that too inside a courtroom?
Akku Yadav was a local gang leader whose daily routine involved demanding money from slum people by forcefully entering their homes (commonly called hafta), and shouting threats and abusing people. He was even accused of murdering people and throwing them in the neighborhoods.
But what really forced these women to take this action was bigger than all these crimes. Every other house in the slum had a rape victim. Yadav and his men used it as a tool to humiliate slum dwellers and break their husbands and fathers to accept his terms. Girls as little as 12 year olds were dragged and gang raped by his men on his order.
You may wonder, why these people never went to the police. Well, Yadav was the one controlling policemen in those areas. Whenever someone went to file a complaint against him, they were sent back after facing accusations like “You are a loose character woman. This is why he raped you. Go away and don’t waste our time.”. Police authorities were in no mood to stand against this goon.
But, when he was on a trial in the Nagpur District court, these 200 women couldn’t take any more. And they all stabbed him to death.
Did they do something wrong? There are multiple instances in the history of our nation, where law was unable to do justice for the people. What are we, as common citizen supposed to do in such a situation?
Rich and powerful people bend the law as it suits them, and the common man in many instances has to face injustice. Most of such people don’t raise their voice and evil blossoms.
Take the example of Jessica murder case which you must certainly know about. If the media would not have hyped the matter, would the justice have been done? Just image how many more such cases would be there, which the media doesn’t show interest in, and injustice is served in the name of justice.
The situation is more magnified in rural surroundings where the poor is even weaker and is devoid of rights. Zamindari system may have been abolished, but the condition of poor is still pitiful in rural areas. They are made to work at terribly low wages, and wives and daughters of many such poor people still satisfy the lust of local goons. Police men themselves are fearful of such local gangsters, and when no help is provided, these poor people have no option but go through whatever they are destined to. In rare cases, when the suffering crosses its limits, some of them decide to put the matter to end themselves.
If you too feel something is wrong, and you want to raise your voice against it, come and write for us. Let us together make India a better place to live in.
And what do you think about this? Is going against law in these circumstances justified?
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