BJP’s new strategy ahead of the 2027 Uttarakhand Assembly elections, attempts to garner the Dalit vote
BJP’s ‘Harmony Mission’ in Uttarakhand, using Saint Ravidas as a vehicle, new strategy for the 2027 Assembly elections, politics intensifies, report by Dheeraj Sajwan Dehradun: Ahead of the 2027 Uttarakhand Assembly elections, the BJP has decided to embark on its most significant social and political mission. To expand its reach among the Dalit vote bank in Uttarakhand, the BJP has launched a “Harmony Resolution Campaign” centered on the 650th birth anniversary of Saint Ravidas. The party aims to further strengthen its hold on the state’s approximately 17% Dalit vote bank. To achieve this, the Samrasata Sankalp Abhiyan will be launched in Uttarakhand, along with the entire country, in February next year, centering on the 650th birth anniversary of Saint Ravidas. The BJP is describing this campaign as a program of social harmony and cultural awakening. However, the opposition is calling it an electoral strategy to garner Dalit votes. According to political analysts, this campaign is not merely a religious or social event, but also a major political exercise to shift social equations in its favor ahead of the 2027 elections. 107 Ravidas temples will be the focus of the campaign, with the BJP reaching the booth level: Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently flagged off the Sant Ravidas Express from Jalandhar. Following this, the BJP is now launching a national-level “Samrasata Sankalp Abhiyan” leading up to the 650th birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas. The campaign will begin with the lighting of lamps on Guru Parva on July 29th, and various programs will be organized across the country until February 20, 2027. Crucially, election-bound states, including Uttarakhand, have been given special focus. 107 temples dedicated to Sant Ravidas in the state have been designated as the focus of the campaign. From Seer Govardhanpur in Varanasi, urns containing sacred soil from the birthplace of Sant Ravidas will be delivered to several states, including Uttarakhand. Following this, Kalash Yatras, social dialogues, seminars, and booth-level programs will be organized. The party’s objective is to spread the message of social harmony among the Dalit community while also strengthening its organizational base. BJP state spokesperson Mathura Dutt Joshi said, Congress attacks, saying, “The campaign is not about harmony, it’s an election stunt.” Congress has reacted sharply to the BJP’s campaign. Congress state spokesperson Pratima Singh called it an election stunt to influence the Dalit community. She said, “How can a party that has been accused of ignoring the ideas of Constitution maker Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and weakening the spirit of the Constitution, talk about harmony?” Congress state spokesperson Pratima Singh said, “Large leaders like Lalu and Mulayam are the products of Lohia’s non-Congressism: Political analysts believe that the social and political structure of Uttarakhand is quite different from that of states like Uttar Pradesh. The Dalit community here has its own social history, local leadership, and distinct political behavior.” Senior political analyst Ravindra Nath Kaushik explains that, Furthermore, senior political analyst Ravindra Nath Kaushik further adds that, Caste equations are nothing new in Indian politics: Ravindra Nath Kaushik explains that caste equations are nothing new in Indian politics. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia’s non-Congressism movement gave a new direction to backward class politics, which later led to the emergence of leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav. He says that the BJP has also been conveying political messages from time to time through social representation. The recent appointment of Babita Sahotra to the Child Welfare Committee can also be considered part of this broader social strategy. According to him, the purpose of starting the campaign now is to ensure that this message continues to resonate with the society until the elections. Haridwar and Terai are the most focused areas, with the Bhim Army and BSP also a challenge: Senior journalist Bhagirath Sharma believes that the BJP’s entire strategy in Uttarakhand has been designed with Haridwar and the Terai region in mind. According to him, the BJP did not achieve the expected success in the Haridwar district in the last assembly elections. In the 2022 elections, out of the 11 assembly seats in the district, the BJP was able to win only three: Haridwar, Roorkee, and BHEL Ranipur. The remaining seats were won by Congress, BSP, and independent candidates. Dalit voters played a decisive role in most of these areas. Senior journalist Bhagirath Sharma says, Dalit voters are in a position to influence election results in many assembly seats: According to Bhagirath Sharma, Dalit voters are in a position to influence election results not only in Haridwar, but also in several assembly seats in the Pachhadun region of Dehradun, Doiwala, Rishikesh, Udham Singh Nagar, and Nainital districts. This is why the party is already developing a network of social dialogue down to the booth level. Political experts believe that an important aspect of Uttarakhand politics is that the Dalit community has been deeply connected not only to national symbols but also to its local social leaders. Devbhoomi has given birth to numerous Dalit leaders and social reformers like Jayanand Bharti, Hari Prasad Tamta, and Khushi Ram Arya, whose social acceptance remains intact in many areas. In such a situation, the biggest question will be whether the national-level harmony campaign in the name of Saint Ravidas will be able to influence Uttarakhand’s local social symbols, or will the state’s politics continue to revolve around local social identities. However, it is certain that political parties’ activism and social campaigns aimed at the Dalit vote bank will intensify in the coming months ahead of the 2027 assembly elections. The Dalit community can play a decisive role in Uttarakhand’s electoral politics: While the BJP is striving for social expansion through harmony, the Congress, BSP, and Bhim Army are facing the challenge of maintaining this same social base in their own ways. In such a situation, the Dalit community may once again play a decisive role in Uttarakhand’s electoral politics. Courtesy: Hindi News
Dalit woman denied payment, subjected to casteist slurs: Casteist slurs and assault upon protest; FIR filed a month later
In Vidyarthipuram village, under the Bichhwan police station area of Mainpuri, a Dalit woman was denied payment after purchasing goods from a shop. When she protested, the accused used casteist slurs against her and assaulted her, leaving her injured. An FIR has been filed a month after the incident. Vidyarthipuram resident Sapna, wife of Mansingh Jatav, stated in her FIR that on June 21st, at 2 p.m., she was alone at her grocery store when Akash, son of Sukhpal, and Nitin Chauhan, son of Guddan, from the neighboring village of Garh Nagla Bhagat, came to her shop and purchased goods. When Sapna asked for money, the accused began abusing her. They used casteist slurs and threatened to kill her if she complained. When Sapna asked for money, the accused also assaulted Sapna, leaving her injured. The woman filed a complaint with higher authorities. Subsequently, a case was registered on July 25th, and the woman underwent a medical examination on July 26th. Station House Officer Ashish Dubey stated that an FIR has been registered based on the complaint, and further action will be taken after the investigation. Shashikant | Orandh (Kurawali), Mainpuri Courtesy: Hindi News
Dalit activists question DK district administration over not holding SC/ST grievance meet
Questioning the Dakshina Kannada district administration for not holding an SC/ST grievance redressal meeting for nearly two years, Dalit activists said the district administration should hold the meeting once every three months. Speaking at a SC/ST grievance redressal meeting on Sunday, held jointly by the Mangaluru City police and Dakshina Kannada district police at the office of the Mangaluru Police Commissioner, activist Jagadish Pandeshwar said many of the grievances raised during meetings held by the police related to revenue matters. “We cannot have unnecessary discussions about revenue matters in this meeting,” he said. He said that while the Udupi district administration held meetings once every three months, the Dakshina Kannada district administration had not held grievance redressal meetings for nearly two years. Mr. Pandeshwar said he had met Revenue Minister G. Parameshwara and apprised him of the issue. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) H.N. Mithun said he would convey the demand for a grievance redressal meeting by the district administration to Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Raju. When an activist spoke about a dispute related to land in Kunjathbail village, Mr. Mithun asked Dalit organisations to render legal assistance to Dalits in protecting their legal rights. The DCP appreciated the efforts of para legal volunteers from the District Legal Services Authority in participating in SC/ST grievance meetings at the Mulki police station and rendering legal assistance to affected parties. Dalit activist S.P. Anand said people were still facing issues in getting caste certificates as Adi Dravida. “Though the government has notified sub-castes under Adi Dravida, officials are still not issuing caste certificates,” Mr. Anand said. On the demand for deployment of home guards across the district, Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar S. Bhoomraddi said that against the sanctioned strength of 800 home guards, only 640 were working, while the remaining 160 posts were vacant. He said only people keen on serving society for an honorarium could come forward to work as home guards. In the last 10 months, only 24 people had come forward to serve as home guards. A home guard is paid ₹800 per day by the police, while other departments pay ₹500 per day, Mr. Bhoomraddi said. A woman said the city police had so far not succeeded in tracing her husband, who had been missing with another woman for the past 26 days. The Bajpe police have registered the missing case of her husband, while Mangaluru Women’s Police have registered a case of the missing woman. A police inspector from Mangaluru South police station said a team had gone to a lodge in Kukke Subrahmanya a few days ago, but the two escaped from the lodge, he said. The Hindu Bureau Courtesy : The Hindu Note: This news is originally published on https:/thehindu.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
As Modi meets Sachkhand Ballan chief, why Punjab’s largest Dalit dera matters politically
Home to Punjab’s largest Ravidasia congregation, the dera has evolved into a symbol of Dalit assertion, religious identity and electoral significance. Chandigarh: Last week, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Jalandhar to inaugurate a new railway station, one of the few persons he chose to specially meet was Sant Niranjan Dass, head of the influential Dalit Dera Sachkhand Ballan. The warmth between the PM and the Dalit dera appears mutual. In December last year, Sant Dass had first met Modi inviting him to the dera on the occasion of Guru Ravidas Jayanti, and the PM visited the dera in February to participate in the ceremony. The dera chief was also honoured with the civilian award Padma Shri last month. Apart from the growing personal friendship, the PM’s open patronage of Punjab’s largest Dalit dera can also be read politically as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) outreach to Dalit voters ahead of next year’s assembly polls. ThePrint explains the emergence of Dera Sachkhand Ballan, located at Ballan in Jalandhar, and its political significance in Punjab. Three prominent deras Deras, widespread in Punjab, are socio-religious centres of various sects and organisations. Unlike Sikh gurdwaras, where the Guru Granth Sahib is considered a living guru, deras are generally led by a living guru with a personal following. Dera Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Dera Sacha Sauda (headquartered in Sirsa) and Dera Sachkhand Ballan are the three most followed deras in Punjab, commanding a following running into several lakhs. Though the dera Beas, located in the Majha belt, is considered to be apolitical, the BJP has in the past few years made multiple efforts to cement the party’s bond with dera chief Baba Gurinder Singh. The outreach has included the PM meeting Baba Gurinder Singh on several occasions. The dera at Sirsa, which has a large following in Malwa, is headed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim currently in jail serving multiple sentences for rape and murder. He is considered to be close to the BJP, with the administration allowing him breaks from jail several times in the year. Now, the bonhomie with a prominent Dalit dera in the heart of Doaba completes the picture. Dalits hold the key Dalits constitute almost 32 percent of Punjab’s population, the highest proportion of Scheduled Caste (SC) population among all Indian states, according to the 2011 Census. They are divided among Sikh, Hindu and Christian faiths, and many flock to deras. Dalits also do not vote en bloc in Punjab. Among the Dalits, the Ravidasias, Ramdasias and Ad-Dharmis are the major sub-groups, concentrated in the Doaba region comprising the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar and Phagwara. Ronki Ram, from the department of sociology, Panjab University Chandigarh, had in his seminal study on Punjab Dalits reported that the Ravidasias are the most prominent Dalit community in the state. “Out of the 39 SC castes in Punjab, the four major castes of Chamar (23.45 percent), Ad-dharmi (11.48 percent), Balmiki (9.78 percent) and Mazhabi (29.72 percent) constitute 74.44 percent of the total SC population,” he wrote in his research paper titled ‘Caste within Caste: Predicament of Political Solidarity among Scheduled Castes in Contemporary Punjab’. “Chamars are further divided into Ravidasias (leather workers) and Ramdasias (weavers). The Ravidasias have utilised the availability of reservation in education well, and are more upwardly mobile than Ramdasias,” he told ThePrint. The Ravidasias are followers of Guru Ravidas, a 15th-century Bhakti saint and social reformer of the Chamar caste whose egalitarian message resonated with Dalit communities. “Ravidas was born into the Chamar caste, also known as Kutbandhla, one of the Scheduled Castes (SC) in Uttar Pradesh. Chamars are known by their profession of leather and tanning. They were oppressed and their touch and sight were considered polluting by the upper castes. Ravidas revolted against this inhuman system of untouchability. He adopted bhakti as a mode of expression for his revolt,” reads Ronki Ram’s research paper. Guru Ravidas’s poetic hymns are also included in the holy text of the Guru Granth Sahib. Every year, trains full of devotees from Sachkhand Ballan head to Shri Guru Ravidas Janam Asthan in Varanasi to mark the guru’s birth anniversary. During his visit to Jalandhar last week, the PM also flagged off the Sant Ravidas Express connecting Amritsar to Varanasi to facilitate devotees travelling from Punjab. The Sachkhand Ballan Dera is the largest dera of the Ravidasias in Punjab. According to Ronki Ram, the growth and expansion of Sachkhand Ballan is an example of the upward mobility of Ravidasias. “Many Ravidasias went abroad and have earned well and have invested in Guru Ravidas deras. They have built temples, gurdwaras, bhawans (memorial halls), educational institutions/chairs, cultural organisations and hospitals in his name all over Punjab. They are also networked and, as a community, enjoy political clout. The growth and expansion of Sachkhand Ballan is an example of this upward mobility of Ravidasias,” he said. A faultline among Ravidasias and radical Sikhs emerged in 2009 when six armed men attacked a Ravidasia congregation at Ravidas Gurdwara in Vienna in Austria, where Sant Ramanand, the then second in command of the dera, was fatally injured. Sant Niranjan Dass, who was heading the sect even then and was with Sant Ramanand, was injured. Sikh extremists saw some Ravidasia practises as divergent from orthodox Sikh canon. They objected to keeping the Guru Granth Sahib at the same level as a human guru. The 2009 attack triggered protests in Punjab, with clashes among Sikhs and Ravidasias reported in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, and other areas. Several vehicles were burnt in the riots that ensued. A passenger train was torched after passengers were asked to evacuate. Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to appeal for peace. In September 2010, a Vienna court sentenced the main attacker to life in prison for murder and attempted murder, while four accomplices received 17 to 18-year sentences and a sixth received six months. Demand for separate identity The Vienna incident was pivotal in galvanising the community’s sense of a separate identity.
Dalit farmer assaulted, subjected to casteist slurs; case registered: Incident occurred in Baghaura village, Bar police station area. A case has been filed under the SC/ST Act along with sections of assault and assault.
Lalitpur. A Dalit farmer working in his field in Baghaura village, Bar police station area, was assaulted and insulted with casteist slurs. Based on the complaint of the victim, police have registered an FIR against four named accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. According to the FIR, Brijlal Ahirwar, a resident of Baghaura village, stated that on July 24, 2026, at around 8 a.m., his uncle, Govinda Ahirwar, was working in his field. Jagdish Yadav, Akash, Dayaram, and Ghuman, residents of the village, arrived and began abusing him. When he resisted, the accused assaulted Govinda Ahirwar with sticks, causing serious injuries. The complaint alleges that the accused insulted her using casteist slurs, threatened to kill her, and fled the scene. The police have registered a case under sections 115(2), 351(3), 352 of the IPC and sections 3(1)(d), 3(1)(g) and 3(2)(va) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and have begun an investigation. Jitendra Singh | Bar, Lalitpur Courtesy: Hindi News
Eight people have been booked for Dalit harassment in Pratapgarh: They accused youths returning from herding goats, and an FIR was filed on the orders of the SC/ST Court.
A case has been filed against eight named accused in connection with the assault and harassment of Dalits in the Aspur Devsara police station area of Pratapgarh, based on the orders of the SC/ST Court. The police have filed an FIR against the accused under various serious sections, including casteist insults, assault, threats, and rioting, and under the SC/ST Act. According to a petition filed in court by Pramila Devi, a resident of Bhikhampur, her son Lucky and family member Amit Kumar were returning home from herding goats on June 4th. It is alleged that Umesh, Dinesh, Omprakash, Umashankar, Ankit, Kusum, Sanskar, and Shiv from Pritampur village stopped them on the way. A woman who tried to protest was also assaulted. The victim alleges that all the accused used casteist slurs and assaulted the two youths, leaving them injured. Pramila Devi says that when she went to protest and complain about the incident, other people from the Yadav settlement also arrived. She alleges that she was also assaulted, resulting in injuries. FIR registered on court order Following a lack of action at the local level, Pramila Devi sought refuge in the SC/ST Court. Following the court’s direction, the Aspur Devsara police have registered a case against all the named accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Police say an investigation has been initiated and further legal action will be taken based on the evidence. Manu Kumar Singh | Pratapgarh Courtesy: Hindi News
Accused arrested for raping a minor Dalit girl in Muzaffarnagar
Muzaffarnagar (UP): A 21-year-old man has been arrested for raping a six-year-old Dalit girl in the Meerapur police station area of Muzaffarnagar district, a police official said. Station in-charge Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday that the incident occurred on Friday when the girl was playing outside her home. Based on a complaint from the victim’s mother, police have registered a case against the accused, Arjun Sharma, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. According to the complaint, the accused neighbor lured the girl to his home and sexually assaulted her, causing injuries. Police said the victim has been sent for a medical examination and the accused has been arrested. Courtesy: Hindi News
‘Cockroaches Don’t Die’: How a Dalit Student Built India’s Most Disruptive Gen Z Political Movement
When India’s Chief Justice called unemployed youth “cockroaches,” Abhijeet Dipke turned the insult into a movement. Two months later, the 30-year-old Boston University graduate leads what may be the most significant street protests against Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014. Revolt of the Roaches: How India’s Most Significant Student Uprising in a Generation Came to Be On May 16, 2026, a 30-year-old political communications strategist sitting in Chicago typed six words on X — or something close to that number — in a moment of frustration, and posted them into the void of Indian social media. The frustration had a specific origin. One day earlier, on May 15, India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant had made remarks during a court hearing that were widely reported as comparing unemployed Indian youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites of society.” The Chief Justice later said his comments had been misconstrued by the media. But the damage — or, depending on your perspective, the spark — had already been struck. Abhijeet Dipke, the man who typed those six words, was not the kind of person the Indian establishment had learned to fear. He was a Dalit from Aurangabad — a city in Maharashtra that has since been officially renamed Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar — the son of a man who grew up in extreme poverty and whose own father was just a farmer. He had a journalism degree from Pune and a master’s degree in public relations from Boston University. He had worked for three years on the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media and election campaign team before moving to the United States to study. He did not hold elected office, command organizational resources, or control a media platform. What he had was a phone, a social media account, and a clarity of purpose that the moment seemed to demand. GeographicReference He announced the founding of the Cockroach Janta Party — CJP, a deliberate echo of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s initials — on May 16, 2026, as a satirical response to the Chief Justice’s remarks. The name was the point: if the powerful called India’s unemployed young people cockroaches, then cockroaches they would be. The party’s slogan — “Voice of the Lazy and Unemployed” — was both self-deprecating and precise. Its founding document described itself as “a political front for the youth, by the youth, for the youth.” What happened next surprised even Dipke. Lakhs of people registered on the party’s website within days. On Instagram, the CJP account accumulated nearly 22 million followers — more than twice the follower count of the BJP’s own Instagram presence, as NPR reported. The satirical party had, in the space of weeks, become something more than satire. The Dalit From Aurangabad: A Biography Written in Caste To understand what Abhijeet Dipke represents — and why the movement he has built carries the specific charge that it does — you have to understand where he comes from. He was born on September 29, 1995, in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, into a Dalit family, as Reuters documented in a detailed profile published July 23, 2026. His family originally traces its ancestral roots to the rural village of Santuk Pimpri in the Hingoli district, before relocating to the MIDC Waluj area of the city following his father’s employment with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, as BiographyKind’s documented account noted. “My father comes from a very humble background. He grew up in extreme poverty. My grandfather was just a farmer,” Dipke told Reuters in a phone interview from Chicago in May. The family’s trajectory — from subsistence farming in rural Hingoli to an industrial township in Aurangabad to, eventually, a Boston University graduate school — is precisely the kind of upward mobility that post-independence India promised and that, Dipke argues, has become increasingly difficult to achieve. GeographicReference His Dalit identity has not been incidental to his politics. When he arrived in Delhi on June 6, 2026, to lead his first in-person protest, he held aloft a copy of “My Autobiography” by B.R. Ambedkar — the Dalit jurist, economist, and social reformer who drafted India’s Constitution and who remains the defining hero of Dalit political consciousness in modern India, as Reuters documented. The gesture was not accidental. Ambedkar’s life — born into caste oppression, educated abroad, returned to India to demand constitutional rights for the most marginalized — maps onto Dipke’s own trajectory in ways he has made explicit. The Ambedkar connection carries an additional resonance specific to the current moment. Aurangabad sits in the shadow of the Maratha empire’s history and of Ambedkar’s own Maharashtrian roots. Dipke’s city is Ambedkar’s country. And when the Chief Justice of India called unemployed youth cockroaches, a Dalit man from that city was among those who heard the insult most clearly. His caste identity also made him a target as soon as he went public. The Print documented that Dipke faced casteist attacks on social media after he revealed he was Dalit — a pattern that his supporters recognized as consistent with the treatment of Dalit activists and commentators across Indian public life. When a woman threw blue ink at him as he was addressing supporters, smearing his face — in a protest gesture, later explained as an accusation that the CJP had insulted Lord Ram — Dipke posted a video of the incident with the caption “The blue is my color,” as Reuters documented. The reference was unmistakable: blue is the color closely associated with the Ambedkarite movement. GeographicReference Boston, the AAP, and the Making of a Political Strategist Dipke’s route from Aurangabad to the barricades at Jantar Mantar runs through Pune, Boston, and a three-year stint with one of India’s most media-savvy political parties. He completed his undergraduate degree in journalism in Pune before moving to the United States for graduate school. At Boston University — one of the country’s leading communications and public affairs programs — he earned a Master of Science in Public Relations. That academic background, as the Young India biographical account
Barnala Incident Reflects Bhagwant Mann Government’s Anti-Dalit Mindset; Arrest the Accused Immediately: Paramjit Singh Kainth
CHANDIGARH: Paramjit Singh Kainth, Vice President of the BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha, Punjab, strongly condemned the incident involving sanitation workers in Barnala, stating that it reflects the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab and the Bhagwant Mann government’s alleged insensitivity towards the Dalit community. He alleged that the police action against protesting sanitation workers was carried out under political pressure, which is contrary to democratic rights and the principles of social justice. Kainth said that the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis taking suo motu cognizance of the matter and seeking a report from the Punjab Government is a clear indication of the state’s failure to protect the rights and dignity of sanitation workers. He demanded the immediate arrest of all those responsible, a fair and impartial investigation, and adequate security, appropriate compensation, and legal assistance for the affected sanitation workers. He warned that if the government fails to take prompt action, the BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha will launch a statewide democratic and constitutional agitation across Punjab in support of justice for the affected sanitation workers. Courtesy : Punjab News Express Note: This news is originally published on https:/punjabnewsexpress.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
Two M.P. Police constables arrested for raping minor dalit girl in Bhopal
According to the police, the incident took place on July 22 and that the minor survivor lodged a complaint on July 23, based on which a case was registered Two Madhya Pradesh Police personnel have been arrested for allegedly raping a minor Dalit girl after abducting her in Bhopal, police said on Friday (July 24, 2026). According to the police, the incident took place on July 22 and that the minor survivor lodged a complaint in Bhopal’s Jahangirabad police station on July 23, based on which a case was registered. Bhopal Additional Commissioner of Police (law and order) Shailendra Singh Chauhan told The Hindu that the accused have been identified as constables Santosh Sen and Jitendra Singh, and that the duo have been arrested. “The complainant approached Jahangirabad Police Station and reported that two individuals, who are basically police constables, called the minor girl and took her in a car somewhere where one of them raped her,” Mr. Chauhan said. Case registered The officer said that a case under relevant provisions, including the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and BNS Sections like 137(2), has been registered, and investigation has been taken up. Mr. Chauhan said that a medical examination was conducted on the survivor. Another officer from Jahangirabad said that the accused had called the girl and lured her on the pretext of taking her to someone’s birthday. “They then took her to a secluded location where Santosh Sen raped her. After this they left the girl at a square in the city,” the officer said, requesting anonymity. The officer said that the girl is currently at her home and her health condition is fine. Mehul Malpani Courtesy : The Hindu Note: This news is originally published on https:/thehindu.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights