Jaipur: Standing in front of the police tent outside his house in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, Arjunram Meghwal appeared inconsolable. For the last 11 years, the sight of the tent and the police personnel standing guard before his house each day reminded him of his dead father, Ratnaram Meghwal, and four other deceased relatives.
“I had hoped that those who murdered my father and other relatives would be punished. But today, after the court’s decision, I don’t know what to do. If nobody is guilty, then who killed my family? Did they die themselves?” Arjunram, a Dalit man who is a resident of Dangawas village in Nagaur district told The Wire on Wednesday (August 5).
Hours earlier, the special court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act cases in Nagaur district’s Merta had acquitted all 40 accused against whom chargesheets were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the murder of Arjunram’s father Ratnaram along with his relatives Pancharam, Ganeshram, Ganpatram and Pokarram.
“I saw them killing my family members. I was also injured in the attack, and yet they will now walk free,” said Arjunram, as he stood before the police tent, which was installed near his house to provide protection to his family after the massacre.
Known as the Dangawas Dalit massacre, the attack on Arjunram’s family on May 14, 2015 over a 50-year-old land dispute and the subsequent death of five Dalit men had resulted in nationwide outrage, leading to the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Rajasthan handing the investigation to the CBI.
Apart from the five Dalit individuals, another person, identified as Rampal Goswami – not a Dalit person – had also died after sustaining bullet wounds during the confrontation in Dangawas on May 14.
In a separate case, a counter FIR over the death of Goswami by bullet injuries was filed wherein members of the Meghwal community including Kishnaram – whose father Pancharam was one of the deceased Dalit persons in the massacre – were made the accused. In the counter FIR, it was alleged that the Dalit persons had opened fire which caused the death of Goswami.
The court on Wednesday made it clear in its judgment that it was not determining who caused the death of Goswami and the counter FIR and the related CBI case will be disposed of independently on their own merits and will not be prejudicially affected by this decision.
A 50-year-old land dispute leading to a massacre
As per the judgment, the CBI found during its investigation that the root cause of the dispute, which lead to the murders in 2015, was a 23-bigha piece of land, allotted by the Rajasthan government to Bastaram Meghwal – a Dalit man – in 1961.
Later, the ownership of the land was transferred to Ratnaram, who was the adopted son of Bastaram.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.