Ramu Saroj, 28, (name changed, surname intact) is a farm labourer. He says the gang-rape has been the “most brutal attack” on his community in a long time.

It has left them humiliated and betrayed.

Discrimination and injustice are a way of life for the Pasis, he says, but violating their minor girl and mocking the act by circulating videos has crushed their spirit and hurt their dignity.

Ramu talks about the discrimination. He says most Pasis in Ghosiya have been denied benefits of various government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. “We have got nothing. It all depends on the pradhan of the village and he openly discriminates. He is from the Muslim caste and gave everything to his own people.”

“The upper caste wants to keep us poor so they have a steady supply of labour for their homes and fields. They fear that if we get a house of our own, we may not toil for them,” he says.

Muslim-majority Ghosiya has always had a Muslim pradhan for as long as he remembers, he says.

Before 2012, Dayaram, an MLA from Bahujan Samaj Party and a Pasi by caste, got a community toilet built in Ghosiya. However, it turned out to be of such poor quality that the entire structure collapsed within no time. It’s lying unused, forcing many villagers to continue to defecate in the fields.

Asked if the majority community practices open defecation too, Ramu says they do not, because the Muslims are well-off and have a toilet built at home.

On the day of the crime, the survivor’s family had to run from pillar to post to get just the first information report (FIR) registered at Sarai Akil police station. The one making the video, Nizam, was caught red-handed after Geeta’s neighbours gathered in the field hearing the girl’s screams. The others managed to flee.

The station house officer (SHO), Manish Pandey, detained Geeta’s father for more than two hours instead of hearing him out. He has been suspended after a departmental inquiry.

Geeta’s mother and her neighbours first went to Sarai Akil Nagar Panchayat Chairman Shivdani and then to BJP MLA from Chail, Sanjay Gupta. They allege that the two didn’t show the needed promptness in the matter.

They eventually turned to an activist couple from their community who gathered villagers and staged a protest outside the police station. The FIR was registered at 9.30 pm — nine hours after the crime.

“It’s always like this with people like us,” says Ramu.