According to the police, the alleged assault took place on Tuesday (October 14), when the victim, Rajkumar Chaudhary, a Dalit, protested a purported illegal mining operation by accused near his farm in Matwara village in Katni district in Madhya Pradesh.
In a shocking incident of casteist violence, a Dalit youth was allegedly thrashed and urinated upon by four people, including the son of a local sarpanch, for opposing illegal mining operations in a village of Katni district in Madhya Pradesh.
According to the police, the alleged assault took place on Tuesday (October 14), when the victim, Rajkumar Chaudhary, protested a purported illegal mining operation by accused near his farm in Matwara village, about under Bahoriband police station limits.’
In his complaint to the police, Chaudhary alleged that the village sarpanch’s son, Pawan Pandey, and his aides, viciously assaulted him when he protested ” illegal mining” near his farm. The accused also urinated upon him, hurled casteist slurs, and threatened to kill him if he approached police, he alleged.
“They insulted me by hurling caste abuses, and one of the Sarpanch’s men even urinated on me. I wanted to die after this incident, but I decided to tell this incident to senior police officials,” the Dalit victim told news agency IANS.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer said the incident was the fallout of a dispute following the sarpanch’s decision to have gravel filled in the gram panchayat, adding that the four accused are currently on the run and efforts are underway to apprehend them.
“Ramanuj Pandey, Ram Bihari Pandey, Pawan Pandey and Satish Pandey allegedly assaulted and insulted Rajkumar Chaudhary. All five are residents of Matwara village. A case was registered under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act today. The four are on the run and efforts are on to nab them,” Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Deharia told PTI.
Notably, Madhya Pradesh have witnessed similar incidents in the recent past where people from underprivileged communities, such as Dalits and tribals, have been subjected to violence and humiliation.
In 2023, a similar incident sparked nationwide outrage when a tribal man, a laborer by profession, was urinated upon by a local politician in Sidhi district, adjacent to Katni.
The despicable act was filmed and the clip shared on social media sites, showing the victim, later identified as 36-year-old Dasmat Ravat, being urinated by the accused, Pravesh Shukla, a local politician, with alleged ties to then BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla. The incident had triggered a massive political furor at the time, prompting them Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to order a case under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the accused.
(With inputs from agencies)
