Maharashtra: Four Men From Dalit Community Tied Upside Down, Assaulted

A shutdown was observed in Haregaon village in Ahmednagar district on August 27 to protest the incident.

New Delhi: Four men from the Dalit community were hung upside down from a tree and assaulted by six persons in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra on August 25. The men, all in their 20s, were accused by the mob of stealing some livestock, according to reports.

After a video of the incident, which took place in Haregaon village of Shrirampur taluka, surfaced on social media, the police arrested one person on August 26, while five others are absconding, an officer told the news agency PTI. The six persons from the village – identified as Yuvraj Galande, Manoj Bodake, Pappu Parkhe, Deepak Gaikwad, Durgesh Vaidya and Raju Borage – allegedly picked up the four Dalit men from their homes and tied them up to a tree upside down and beat them with sticks.

The police have registered a case under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 364 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code and some sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

A shutdown was observed in Haregaon village on August 27 to protest the incident, according to PTI.

Opposition parties Congress and Nationalist Congress Party have condemned the attack. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the incident was a “blot on humanity”, adding, “Such incidents are a result of hate being spread by BJP for its political gain.” NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase accused the Eknath Shinde government of “failing to protect the self-respect of Dalits”.

Over the weekend, several cases of casteist assault were reported from different parts of the country. In Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, a teenager from the Dalit community was beaten to death. The mob attacked the man because his sister had filed a sexual harassment case in 2019 against four men who she said threatened and attacked her. The mob who attacked the family recently wanted the woman to withdraw the case. The mob not only beat the teenager to death, but also stripped his sister and mother.

Courtesy : The Wire

Note: This news piece was originally published in thewire.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Right