SHILLONG: In spite of the lockdown and the government prohibition against social gathering, the residents of Bakur on Wednesday came together to voice their concern over the June 4 incident in which one lady identified as Kashmir Dkhar was beaten up and tonsured by force by some women, headman and the secretary.
Allegations and counter allegations came to the fore regarding the incident at a time when the High Court of Meghalaya will take up bail plea of the accused headman and secretary.
As many as 163 persons, mostly youths from Bakur, carried out signature campaign condemning the accused.
They demanded that bail should not be granted to the accused and there should be stringent punishment.
Another demand is that the district council should take action against the headman and the secretary.
They have also petitioned the Dolloi of Nongtalang to suspend the Dorbar Shnong. The youths also took exception to the allegations that victim was a Bangladeshi non-tribal and that she was a habitual offender of the village.
They said that the victim has been brought up in Bakur Dawki by Khasi parents and that she has family members in Bangladesh including her mother.
The youths pointed out that the headman organised a meeting along with over 30 supporters on Wednesday to create false propaganda since the case is coming up on Thursday.
According to the youths , the victim has EPIC and enjoys voting rights during elections and she even has ration card.
The District Court of Jowai had rejected the anticipatory bail of four accused on June 15 and 16 and two women are still under judicial custody and two others, the headman and the general secretary had moved application seeking anticipatory bail in the high court. The court had on June 22 directed the investigation officer to produce case diary.
The youths alleged that the meeting called by headman, who is also the president of Synjuk ki Rangbah Shnong, is to get sympathy which needs to be condemned.
Counter allegations
However, some residents of the village alleged that the brother of the woman and the elder sister were the ones responsible in beating and tonsuring the woman.
The residents of the village claimed that there was no incident as such and the arrest of the two women is not justified since there was no quarrel between the women’s group and the victim.
The VDP secretary of Bakur, Richard Pohlong said that it is not the first time that the victim created such nuisance in the village. The woman was in fact involved in many illegal businesses for which the BSF had even arrested her number of times, he said.
Pohlong claimed that when she was handed over to the police by the Village Council for violating the lockdown protocols by returning from Bangladesh on April 30, she started alleging that the residents beat her up and shaved her head by force.
Pohlong alleged that she made false claim with the support of few people of the Seng Samla Shnong and called them opportunists who want to see the downfall of the village council for their own personal benefits.
He also expressed concern over the well being of women but added that such incidents should not defame the whole village because the truth was something else which should be taken into consideration.
The VDP secretary also said that it was her brother, Akos Dkhar who beat her up after both of them were drunk.
Meena Dkhar who is the adviser of the Seng Kynthei, alleged that Kashmir Dkhar does not have proper documents to prove that her title is actually Dkhar.