After the Hathras incident came to light, several people had claimed that the crime had nothing to do with the victim’s caste and that casteism as it used to be, do not exist anymore. This has however been rejected by many, citing the number of cases of atrocities against Dalits, which continues to happen across the country.
Now, yet another such case has come to light in Uttar Pradesh, where a 65-year-old man was allegedly forced to drink urine and beaten up, along with his son, in Lalitpur district.
According to ANI, the incident happened last week, after the victim, 65-year-old Amar, a resident of Roda village in Lalitpur filed a complaint against a man called Sonu Yadav for allegedly attacked his son a few days ago with an axe.
Beaten up after refusing to withdraw complaint
Following the police complaint, Yadav allegedly tried to force the father and son to a compromise and withdraw the complaint.
However, after they declined to do so, they were allegedly forced to drink urine and beaten up. When I refused, he attacked me with a stick. He also attacked my son with an axe. We then complained against him to the police,” Amar said.
Main accused arrested
Following a complaint by the victim’s family, the main accused has been arrested, while the search for others involved in the case is on, said police. Superintendent of Police Mirza Manzar Beg confirmed that a few influential people of Roda thrashed the two villagers.
The main accused has been arrested and search is on for others involved in this case. We registered an FIR soon after getting the complaint. We will not tolerate any such bullying,” Mirza Manzar Beg said.
The latest National Crime Records Bureau data show an increase of 7.3 per cent in crimes against scheduled caste people with 45,935 cases an increase from 42,793 cases registered in 2018.
Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for over 25 per cent of the total cases by recording the highest number of atrocities against SC people in the country and accounted for 11,829 out of the almost 46,000 cases in India.
The number of Dalits murdered in the country last year was 923 out of which 219 took place in Uttar Pradesh. The total number of 3,486 cases of rape of Dalit women were registered in India during the same period, out of which 537 were from UP. Data showed crimes against scheduled tribes increased by 26 per cent against scheduled tribe (ST) people in 2019 as compared with 2018.
Source: India Times
