Shiva Shankar Das, 21, had a love affair with a 20-year-old woman belonging to a so-called “upper-caste” community in Pansera VDC of Siraha District. The relationship was opposed by the girl’s family, which led to severe social repercussions due to caste discrimination.
On January 29, the girl’s brothers threatened Das, demanding that he end the relationship, or he would “prepare everything for his funeral.” The following day, Shiva was beaten by seven of the girl’s relatives, sustaining numerous injuries. Later, when he went to meet the girl to retrieve his phone, he was poisoned by her family. He returned home crawling, stating that he had been poisoned and vomiting. Shiva was taken to a hospital, but his condition worsened, and he died the next day.
The police initially mishandled the case, suggesting that Shiva had committed suicide, and failed to properly investigate. They also denied the victim’s family access to the postmortem report and death certificate. Despite public outcry and a campaign by Dalit civil society, the case was only officially registered on February 26, 2012. However, no further investigation has been launched.
