She told how she has not been able to sleep properly or leave the house after fleeing her village to a secret location in Delhi.
She said: "I can’t sleep, I’m very scared. How will we ever return home or to our village? If we ever return they will harm us or rape us. If not today then in the future. Jats never forget and they will not forget this humiliation. They want their revenge. Loving someone is not wrong."
Meenakshi and her little sister were with the family in Delhi for a wedding when a neighbour called them and told them not to return to the village as the un-elected village council, Khap panchayat, dominated by upper caste "Jat" men, ordered the two sisters be raped and paraded naked with their faces blackened as punishment for their brother's actions.
Their brother, Ravi Kumar, 25, from the Dalit caste, historically known as "untouchables", had been in a relationship with 21-year-old Krishna from the Jat caste for almost two years.
When both families came to know they did all they could to keep the two apart.
Older brother Sumit Kumar, 28, who works as a constable in the Delhi Police, said he told his younger brother to end the relationship immediately because they could never be together.
He said: "We belong to a lower caste and they are from an upper caste and I told him this relationship could never work. We are treated as untouchables but he didn't listen to me and now we are paying for it."
Ravi met Krishna two years ago when she joined his computer classes for children, in Khekada, Uttar Pradesh, central India.
They exchanged phone numbers and quickly fell in love. They’d be on the phone to each other all the time and meeting in secret locations.
But as soon as Ravi’s father Naik Dharampal Singh, 52, heard of the relationship he told him to end it.
Even though Ravi ended the relationship they couldn’t bear to be apart. Eventually Krishna’s parents started looking for prospective husbands for her but she refused.
"It was hard for my brother but he understood the situation," Sumit said.
"Her family knew about their relationship before the marriage. They beat their daughter a lot and gave my brother warnings many times.
"In the end my brother told her to go ahead with the marriage, she had to. She went ahead with the marriage in Haryana but she was very unhappy. They treated her like a maid.
So she left and returned home. And that’s when she and my brother started their relationship again."
Ravi and Krishna had eloped twice before but had returned. Each time Sumit claimed her family beat her.
"We made him understand it was dangerous. At the end of the day it’d be our family who would suffer. He understood what he was doing, he knew the risks but love took over.
"When the girl got in touch with him he just couldn’t contain his emotions. We are now helpless. His future is ruined completely and our family is in danger," he said sobering.
No comments:
Post a Comment