Having spent three months in jail on false charges, Ravi is now free, after the Supreme Court on 16 September ordered his release on bail. He is still as much in love with Krishna as he was earlier, but is in agony over the treatment meted out to him. He also asserts that the rape and other charges filed against him and his family members are manifestly false.

Main yeh chahta hu ki agar ladki (Krishna) mere saath khush hai toh mere pass aaye. Lekin yeh mere aur mere parivar ke upar rape aur jaan se marne ka case dala gaya hai, wo bilkul jhootha hai. (If Krishna is happy with me, I want her to return. But all the cases filled against me and my family members are false.) — Ravi Kumar to The Quint

Dalit Family Cannot Return Home

Although the Supreme Court has directed the Delhi police to provide protection to Ravi and his family (and we did see a constable armed with a rifle constantly by his side), they are still mortally petrified of returning to Baghpat.

Sumit, Ravi’s elder brother, himself a constable with the Delhi Police says:

I will never send my family back to my village. They (Khap) will kill my family. I don’t trust the UP police. They are not protectors of the law but protectors of the Khaps. – Sumit, Ravi’s brother to The Quint

It’s evident now that the conduct of Sub-Inspector Aman Singh, the lynchpin of the police prosecution, along with Subodh Singh, the SHO (Station House Officer) should invite severe penal action.

Section 330B of the Indian Penal Code makes the use of force for extracting a confession a criminal offence. And in this case, the offence becomes all the more galling because the narcotic substance was planted on Ravi, as Aman Singh candidly admits here (audio recording).

Questions Swirling Around Police

That’s not all. Can the police explain who allowed Krishna’s relatives to enter the police station cell and beat up Ravi? Under which authority of law were civilians allowed into the lockup? Can SI Aman Singh explain from where he got the 2.5 kilograms of poppy husk planted on Ravi?

And, can the authorities answer for Aman Singh and his conspirators still not being booked under Section 3 (1) (viii) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act? This provision makes it a criminal offence to institute malicious or false suits or criminal cases against a member of a Scheduled Caste.

On 16 September, the UP government and police were granted four weeks to respond to the writ petition one of Ravi’s sisters has filed in the Supreme Court. Whether the court will give them a bloodied nose remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain - Ravi and his family now live in constant fear, their lives lacerated, maybe forever.