February, 2021: A 14-year-old boy, belonging to a scheduled tribe of Karnataka, has been killed by the family of a Muslim girl he was in friendship with. The killers allegedly chopped off the boy’s private parts and nose.
The case has been covered by national newspapers. However, most have failed to name the religious identity of the girl’s family, introducing them only as “a different community”. You can read reports by The Times of India here, by the Deccan Chronicle here and by The Hindu here.
Both the accused and the victim’s families live in Naribol village of Jewargi taluk in Kalaburagi district of Karnataka. The boy’s name was Kolli Mahesh.
Rashtra Jyoti talked to the boy’s uncle named Vishwanath. He said that on the evening of 22 February, Mahesh left home saying he was going to the nearby temple and would be back in 15 minutes. When he did not return, the family inquired from his friends about his whereabouts.
They learnt that Mahesh had recently been warned by the mother of a classmate, who belonged to the Muslim community, against talking to her daughter. Mahesh’s father and uncle reached the classmate’s house.
The girl, who is a year younger to Mahesh, handed them a mobile phone and went inside. Her mother turned the men away.
The family learnt that Mahesh and the girl were friends, and he had recently gifted her a mobile phone.
They gave a missing persons’ complaint to the Jewargi police station.
Around 5 pm on 25 February, villagers found a sack floating in Bhima river. The bag was pulled out with the help of police. It carried a decomposed body.
The uncle said that the boy’s private part and nose were chopped off. The police told the same to the media.
The uncle told Rashtra Jyoti the boy was a student of Class 9 at a government school. The girl was a student of Class 6 in the same school.
He said that the family has received some compensation from the state government under the SC/ST prevention of atrocities act. The family belongs to the Bedar tribe, which largely follows the Hindu religion.
The police took into custody the girl’s mother, 42-year-old Tara Bee (wife of Chahusen Shah Fakir) and a man named Mehboob, Tara’s friend.
The two were booked under IPC sections 363, 302, 201, 34 as well as sections of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe prevention of atrocity Act (FIR number 27/2011 at Jewargi police station).
The uncle said that the boy was intoxicated before the murder. He said that the boy’s father, who is a farmer, is miserable after the loss of his son and is constantly asking why the girl’s family did not approach him if they had objections to his son talking to their daughter.
Read the letter below by the family addressed to the local judge appealing him to take up the case, dated 26 February 2021 – a day after the boy’s body was found.
Update: The police have filed the chargesheet in the case. A bail application filed by Tara Bee filed in August 2021, is pending in the Kalaburagi sessions court.
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