Ashwani Sharma, a truck driver from Sial Sallan village of Udhampur, Jammu Kashmir was allegedly almost killed two times by his father and aunt for marrying outside their caste, as per a report by The Wire.
Ashwani Sharma belongs to an ‘upper caste’ Brahmin community married to Lakshmi Devi in 2009 who is from the Dalit community.
Due to the wrath of Sharma’s father and paternal aunt, the couple has been living in a single, shabby rented room with their 2 children in Sial Sallan village in Udhampur the only accommodation they can afford since January.
Despite the fact that the couple has been living together for more than a decade now, Ashwani’s family continues to reject Lakshmi and threaten Ashwani, making him bear consequences for remaining with her.
According to the couple, the January 2021 attack on Ashwani was the second attempt on his life by his father Sat Pal Sharma and aunt Ram Pyari when they allegedly set him on fire beacause he married across the boundary of caste.
The burn injuries of Ashwani in the incident had also led him to quit his work as a truck driver. His family of four now lives on the Rs 1,200 per month Lakshmi earns as a domestic worker, together with some help from their fellow villagers.
They also alleged that Ram Pyari had tried to poison Ashwani last year in May when he continued to reject their demands to divorce Lakshmi.
Although the couple had filed a complaint with the police in the poisoning case and a first information report (FIR) in the immolation case, the complaint relating to the poisoning was forcibly closed by the police last year, they claim. While the case relating to the immolation is still pending investigation, according to their advocate.
The Wire quoted Mr. Manmohan Thappa, a Dalit activist as saying “Most of the time, ‘honour crimes’ go unreported in Jammu Kashmir,” even if they are reported they tend to quietly disappear.
Thappa, reportedly, has been organising protests and meeting various civil and police officers to help Ashwani get justice.
Thappa pointed out to what happened to the complaint filed by Lakshmi in Ashwani’s poisoning case as an example of what usually happens with caste-based crimes in Jammu Kashmir.
“On August 20, 2020, Lakshmi had filed an FIR against eight people including Sat Pal, Ram Pyari and Ashwani’s uncle Puran Chand, who is a local councillor from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the case had been abruptly closed by the police who claimed that all the parties concerned had settled the matter out of court, though neither Lakshmi nor Ashwani had signed the document of compromise.”
“Ashwani Sharma was forced by senior police officers to withdraw his wife’s complaint after he was poisoned, the police said that case was settled outside the court. In spite of the fact that neither he nor his wife had signed the compromise document and still have not done so even today. The negative role of the police in such cases needs to be checked and corrupt officers punished. But that’s not happening in JK,” Thappa said.
The first killing attempt
In 2009, Ashwani had married Lakshmi, a divorced Dalit woman, without the consent of his parents. Ever since he knew that his marriage would never be accepted by his dominant caste family members, he and Lakshmi lived in a rented house in Jammu’s Samba district. Soon, the couple moved to Udhampur and lived for some months in a rented room in the Roun Domail area.
Everytime Ashwani visited his parents at Rathian Danna village, he pleaded them to accept their daughter-in-law. But they allegedly told him every time: “Eh Chamari ye te asse’n isi apne mohalle ni raun sena (She is a Chamar [a Dalit] and we will not let her live in our neighbourhood).”
On March 16, 2020, Ashwani lost his mother Sushma Devi and brother Rahul Sharma in a road accident. “For the next two and a half months, I lived with my father while Lakshmi and the children remained in Roun Domail. On June 7, 2020, my chachi, Ram Pyari, who has often cursed me for marrying a Dalit woman, poisoned me,” Ashwani said. “I knew I had been poisoned because I started vomiting blood.”
He said that he went to the district hospital to confirm his suspicions, but claims that the medical records of his visit to the hospital have been misplaced.
Later, Ashwani added that , his aunt threatened him with dire consequences “if my wife and I ever visited our home at Rathian Danna village again.”
The Second Killing Attempt
On January 13, 2021, Sat Pal allegedly invited Ashwani to his home at Rathian Danna for “Lohri celebrations.”
“As my father had asked me to come alone, I didn’t took my wife with me,” said Ashwani. “On January 14, me and my father discussed some property-related matters, my chachi poured kerosene oil on my body and threw a matchstick towards my father. As my father set me ablaze, my aunt and grandmother ran to their room and watched from the doorway.”
Ashwani saved himself by running out of the house and rolling on the ground to douse the flames. A group of people who had been drinking near Sharma’s fields heard Ashwani cry out and took him to the hospital.
He was referred to Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh Hospital in Jammu from district hospital Udhampur for “advanced treatment”. For the next fortnight he underwent treatment at the Jammu hospital.
“But when I ran out of the money I’d saved, I ran away from the hospital,” Ashwani confessed.
“When an Udhampur-based news portal shared Ashwani’s story, a Muslim woman who lived in a nearby village and was a nurse began to visit Ashwani every day to change his dressings free of cost until his burns healed. “She was an angel,” said Ashwani. “To date, I don’t even know her name.”
‘It was self-immolation’ – Alleges the Family
While Ashwani and Lakshmi claim that Sat Pal and Ram Pyari had set Ashwani on fire, Sat Pal claims his son had attempted to take his own life.
“On Lohri, he had come to meet us at Rathian Danna. The next day, he locked himself inside one of the rooms and threatened to kill himself if we didn’t accept his wife. I tried to convince him not to do it but he set himself on fire,” alleged Sat Pal.
“I, somehow, broke open the doors but he ran to another room where he made an attempt to end his life,” he added.
Sat Pal still refuses to welcome Lakshmi into the family. “She is a divorced lady and a Dalit. If we accept her, it will cause a huge dent to our reputation in society. I’ve already lost one of my sons. Ashwani is dear to me; I’m ready to give him whatever I have. But I cannot accept the woman he has married,” said Sat Pal.
Struggle for an FIR
According to Ashwani, the Udhampur police did not register an FIR against his family members till May 2021, about four months after the crime.
“After my burns healed, I filed a complaint with the police in Udhampur and then visited the police station every day for about two and a half months to request the then station house officer to register an FIR against my father and two of my aunts. But he would always tell me to come another day,” said Ashwani.
He alleged that the police had been stalling the registration of the FIR at the behest of his uncle Puran Chand, a local BJP leader who is close to senior BJP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi.
Eventually, although Ashwani and Lakshmi could not afford a lawyer, they had persuaded an advocate named Gulshan Singh to take on the case pro bono.
“I straightforwardly told Gulshan Singh that I didn’t have money to pay his fees and requested him to fight my case free of cost.
“The lawyer was moved by my request and approached the court to intervene and the FIR against my family members was registered in May 2021,” Ashwani said.
The FIR charges his father Sat Pal Sharma, aunt Ram Pyari and grandmother Maya Devi with crimes under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 156 (liability of agent of owner or occupier for whose benefit riot is committed) of the Indian Penal Code.
When The Wire asked Sargun Shukla, the senior superintendent of police at Udhampur, why the police had taken four months to register an FIR, he said: “I cannot comment on this without ascertaining all the facts.”
Given the fact that the police took so long to file the FIR, Ashwani and Lakshmi have now pinned their hope for justice on the judiciary.
“If there was no judiciary, the Udhampur police wouldn’t have registered an FIR against my father and other family members who tried to kill me,” said Ashwani.
However, Ashwani’s lawyer Gulshan Singh is not very hopeful. “The Udhampur police have not made any arrests in this case so far,” The Wire quoted Singh.
“They’re not even interested in proceeding with the investigation. They’re definitely doing this at the behest of some influential people to shield the accused,” he said.