The state government’s Tanta-Mukti scheme, launched in August last year, was meant to quickly resolve minor disputes at the village level with the help of local leaders.
If the panchayat had succeeded in settling the rape and murder of a Muslim girl near Latur under the Tanta-Mukti scheme, the incident would never have come to light. Neeta Kolhatkar explores the loopholes in this redressal system
MUMBAI: The state government’s Tanta-Mukti (bickering-free) scheme, launched in August last year, was meant to quickly resolve minor disputes at the village level with the help of local leaders. But already the scheme has got mired in controversy amid allegations that it is being misused to cover up major crimes against Dalits and minorities.
A case in point is the gang-rape and murder of 14-year-old Taslima Bagwan near Latur on New Year’s Eve, reported by DNA Sunday on January 6. The Police Patil of Dawangaon village, Mohan Bhosale, confessed to the Udgir police during investigations that he had asked the Bagwans to settle the matter without lodging an First Information Report (FIR). “We have confiscated a blank paper from Bhosale with the signatures of Khwaja and Salima bi (Taslima’s parents) saying they had accepted money as a settlement,” says Sanjay Lathkar, superintendent of Police, Udgir.
The police, in the course of investigating this case, uncovered three other alleged murders of women in Dawangaon village, which had not been reported. The husbands of these women have now lodged complaints that they were bribed or coerced to report the deaths as accidents instead of murders.
Prabhakar Birajdar has told the superintendent of police that he was paid Rs70,000 by a panchayat member, Shivaji Mule, to keep quiet about the murder of his wife, who was allegedly killed and thrown into the village well. Vaidyanth Bhande and Ramchandra Bhande, too, have now officially complained to the police that their wives had actually been murdered and had not fallen into the well.
The villagers allege that in all these cases Shivaji Mule who is absconding, has put pressure on them. “Mule has used his position as a panchayat member to put pressure on these families,” says Sayyed Moinuddin, a social worker.
Lathkar says neither panchayat members nor Tanta-Mukti Samiti members are supposed to intervene in heinous offences. “It is clear that the Tanta Mukti Samiti members cannot interfere in non-compoundable crimes like murder and rape.”“The scheme is not meant for cases of atrocity. This samiti does not have a right to settle these issues,” says RR Patil, home minister.
But Dalit and minority leaders say the scheme has become a handle for members of the upper castes and village panchayats to settle offences under Tanta-Mukti instead of taking them up under the Prevention of Atrocities Act. “It has actually become an obstacle in implementing the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Major crimes are being settled forcibly under this scheme,” says Avinash Mahtekar, secretary, Republican Party of India.“To make this scheme successful, members of the lower castes have to be given prominent posts on these samitis,” says Abraham Mathai, vice-chairman of the State Minorities Commission. But police officials supervising the scheme say they have sensitised officers at the lowest levels.
“The Udgir case or similar examples are aberrations. They don’t make the entire system foul. The formation of the scheme has taken into consideration the social realities of our caste system. No new problems are being created because of this scheme,” says Himanshu Roy, DIG of Police. He points to positive examples like the ‘Ek gaon, ek Ganpati'’campaign to resolve differences in villages before the festival.
k_neeta@dnaindia.net
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