Caste and Crime

The government's role in ensuring the safety and dignity of people from marginalised communities like Musahars is paramount in a caste-ridden society like Bihar

- Vivek Kumar Rai

ON June 22, eight-year-old Anubha (name changed) and her younger sister were playing with friends near their home in their village in Jainagar town in Madhubani, Bihar. That evening, when Anubha did not return home, her family, and many others from the village, started looking for her.

Two days later, Anubha’s body was found barely 100 metres from her home, in one of the abandoned and dilapidated buildings at the site of the Kosi Project—an ambitious government project started in the 1950s to minimise the impact of floods in the Kosi region. Now, it has become a crime scene. It is also a hideout for perpetrators of heinous crimes.

The horrific incident of abduction, gang rape and killing of Anubha—who belonged to the Musahar community, one of the most marginalised communities in Bihar belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category—was largely overlooked by the local and mainstream media. The most disturbing bit about the whole incident was that one of the main accused, Sushil Kumar Rai, was Anubha’s chacha—her father’s friend, who lived in the same village.

Narrating the incident, Lal Deo Saday, the General Secretary of the Bhartiya Musahar Bhuiyan Pariwar Sangh, a caste network related to the Musahar community, says the accused joined the family and other villagers when the frantic search for Anubha began.

“It was only after the villagers questioned the children who were with Anubha did her sister share that she was last seen walking away with chacha (Rai). The family questioned the accused several times, but he denied his involvement and kept on misleading the family. Finally, the father approached the local police, who started a search operation,” informs Saday.