Madhya Pradesh: Dalit woman who alleged sexual harassment dies after ‘falling from ambulance’

A Dalit woman died in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on Sunday after allegedly falling from an ambulance carrying the body of her uncle, who was beaten to death by some persons, The Indian Express reported.

In August, the woman’s brother, Nitin Ahirwar, was killed in a mob attack led by Vikram Singh Thakur, the prime accused booked for sexually harassing her in 2019. Thakur allegedly led the mob attack after the family refused to withdraw the sexual harassment complaint against him.

On Saturday, the woman’s uncle, Rajendra Ahirwar, died of injuries sustained in a clash between two groups under the Khurai police station limits, Deccan Herald quoted Lokesh Sinha, the additional superintendent of police, as saying. The police official, however, did not specify why he was attacked.

The family members of the deceased persons alleged that the accused persons had been pressurising the woman’s uncle to withdraw the sexual harassment case.

“There was constant pressure on us, but we did not withdraw the case,” another brother of the deceased woman told The Indian Express. “Our brother was killed and we could not let that go. Then they killed our uncle on Saturday. My sister and the uncle’s parents had left from Sagar with the body in an ambulance, when she fell from the van.”

The brother alleged that the ambulance took an unusual route and there was pressure on the family to withdraw the sexual harassment case.

“We were under constant pressure to withdraw the molestation case,” he alleged. “Our uncle was killed over this issue.”

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that under the Bharatiya Janata Party’s rule, the government is always found standing with the culprits instead of the victim.

“Such incidents break the courage of every person who has no other way to seek justice except the law,” the Lok Sabha MP said in a social media post. “I assure you that we will create such a system where even the weakest person will be able to raise his voice strongly against oppression. We cannot allow justice to become dependent on wealth and power.”