Jagan says TDP behind murder of YSRCP’s Dalit activist
During the conversation, Salman’s brother reportedly detailed the alleged atrocities of local TDP leaders in Pinnelli village. VIJAYAWADA: Former chief minister and YSR Congress Party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy strongly condemned the killing of party activist Manda Salman in Palnadu district. Expressing outrage, he said law and order in the State had completely deteriorated and alleged that the Dalit activist was unjustly murdered by TDP leaders. He remarked that attacks on YSRCP workers and leaders had become routine, while police, instead of offering protection, were colluding with ruling party leaders. Jagan Mohan Reddy spoke to Salman’s brother over the phone, conveyed his condolences, and assured the family that the party would stand firmly by them. He promised that once the YSRCP returns to power, strict action would be taken against those responsible. During the conversation, Salman’s brother reportedly detailed the alleged atrocities of local TDP leaders in Pinnelli village. The former chief minister urged party workers not to panic, assuring them of full support from the party. He emphasised that justice would be ensured under due process of law once YSRCP regains power. Courtesy : TNIE Note: This news is originally published on https:/thenewindianexpress.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
10 Years Later, Rohith Vemula’s Fight Remains Dalit Students’ Reality
Nothing will change until society and academia decide to preach, propagate, and practice the ideas of Babasaheb. Exactly 10 years ago, Rohith Vemula, a 28-year-old Dalit student and PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, died by suicide. Along with him, four other students had been expelled for raising their voices against their suspension, a practice that had become rampant in the university. Their access to the hostel, mess, administrative buildings, and common rooms were revoked—and their scholarships were put on hold. Rohith, along with his friends, protested against this act of injustice in the open, with a photo of Babasaheb Ambedkar by their side. But even in the face of widespread outrage and sustained agitation, the university refused to revoke their expulsion. At last, Rohith could not take it any longer. Nothing will change until society and academia decide to preach, propagate, and practice the ideas of Babasaheb. An Ambedkarite, Rohith was a voice of reason who was vocal on social issues. His death was not merely a personal tragedy, but a case of institutional failure. An Ambedkarite, Rohith was a voice of reason who was vocal on social issues. His death was not merely a personal tragedy, but a case of institutional failure—a fate that has long plagued Dalit students and that of oppressed castes for generations in the ecosphere of Indian educational institutions. For generations, oppressed-caste students have been cornered, harassed, and pushed to breaking point in hostile academic environments. Rohith’s death created much furore and sparked a spate of protests across various educational institutions in India. Students and citizens took to streets in opposition to such instances of caste-discrimination-related deaths—and criticised this very visible act of apartheid. Professors, who were critical of the university’s complicity in driving Rohith to his death, were suspended. Some others resigned in the face of such a brutal case of discrimination. In spite of these acts of defiance and dissent, and much noise and agitation, a crucial question remains: what came of these struggles? What has changed in the decade since Rohith Vemula’s death? What ensued was a deliberate reframing of caste and the discrimination it produces—transforming it from a lived social oppression into a contested political question. Rohith’s life couldn’t incite the support, resources, or opportunities he deserved, but his death was instrumentalised for this. The issue that once centred Rohith soon erased him. He was pushed to the back of a protest that he had started, the repercussions for which he faced alone. The reason for this was his oppressed caste background, one that left him bereft of socio-economic capital and political means to survive the casteist atmosphere of Indian educational institutions. This lack of resources made him vulnerable to attacks on his character and mental health, followed by coercive attempts to delegitimise his identity. Such vilification of marginalised students has long been used to enforce and justify the caste-based notions of purity and pollution, thereby legitimating caste discrimination in educational instructions. A preventable tragedy was deliberately overshadowed by turning it into a political issue, so as to put it to rest. Ten years since Rohith’s death, little has changed in the plight of marginalised students in Indian educational institutions. According to a report in The Wire, between 2019 and 2021, 98 Dalit students died by suicide across various educational institutions in India—a number so jarring it should have awakened the consciousness of the society. But the answer is one of negation. In 2019, Dr Payal Tadvi, a 26-year-old student belonging to a tribal community, died by suicide at the hostel of a government-run hospital in Mumbai. Dr Tadvi was repeatedly harassed by her seniors with caste slurs. The case lingered on with no delivery of justice. Nothing will change until society and academia decide to preach, propagate, and practice the ideas of Babasaheb. Dr Payal Tadvi was repeatedly harassed by her seniors with caste slurs. The case lingered on with no delivery of justice. In January 2025, the Supreme Court of India ordered the University Grants Commission (UGC) to submit a report on the instances of caste discriminations in Indian educational institutions. What came to light was an astonishing fact. In the academic year 2023-24, 1,503 instances of caste discriminations were recorded across 3,522 institutions in India, out of which only 1,426 cases were followed up with further procedures. These figures are but instances that were reported to relevant authorities. Most of such instances go unreported, for fear of inviting the violence of the upper caste communities. The Numbers That Refuse to Disappear Caste is the social structure on which the Indian society rests, shaping all aspects of life, including politics. Much of the politics in India is governed, driven, and affected by its society. It is a sum total of this very dual character of caste that marginalised students don’t have access to resources, privileges, and capital. Although reservation is a constitutional right, it is routinely ignored in elite institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, which have been long regarded as the bastions in the field of science and technology. This isn’t an isolated instance of overrepresentation of upper caste students in Indian educational institutions but an everyday reality of Dalit or Adivasi students, who, despite having secured enough marks, checking off qualification rules, and following due process, have been repeatedly denied admissions in Indian educational spaces for generations together. With these many hurdles, the process of access to educational spaces in India thus in itself become a punishment. In a caste-driven society like India, one’s caste decides who will be able to avail education. It is in this aspect that the marginalised students fall short of, for their disadvantaged caste location puts them up for endless struggles and taunts to get an admission to these prohibited campuses. One needs aesthetic, ideas, language and a refined taste to succeed in Indian academia. Such an ideal situation is only possible in the case of a person who has grown with an excess of resources, for its
Meerut Dalit Woman’s Killing: Family Says Police, BJP Helping Prime Accused Claim Minority to Escape Punishment
The family of a Dalit woman who was brutally killed in Meerut, allegedly by a group of upper-caste men, has accused the Uttar Pradesh police and the BJP of shielding the main accused and cutting them off from the outside world. Speaking to reporters outside his village on Wednesday, the eldest brother of the abducted woman said the police were deliberately protecting Paras Som, the prime accused in the case. “In Uttar Pradesh, criminals are killed in encounters, but Paras Som was not even touched. Everyone in the village knows he killed my mother and abducted my sister. Putting him in jail is just an eyewash,” he said. He alleged that a conspiracy was underway to help the accused escape strict punishment. “While being taken to court, he was allowed to speak to the media and claim that he is a minor. This is a planned attempt to save him, even though the whole village knows he is around 25 years old,” the brother said. The family also alleged that heavy police presence around their house was not meant for protection but to isolate them. “Paramilitary forces have been deployed outside our home. All entry points to the village have been blocked and six CCTV cameras have been installed around our house. At first we thought it was for our safety, but now it feels like they want to stop us from talking to anyone,” he said. According to the family, the incident took place on the morning of January 8 when Paras Som and his associates attacked the woman with axes as she was going to her fields with her daughter. The woman was killed on the spot and her daughter was abducted. Another brother of the abducted woman said eyewitnesses had named four people in the crime. “Paras Som, his friend Sunil Som and two others were involved. The police arrested Paras and Sunil but have done nothing to catch the other two accused. Now Paras is playing the age card on the advice of politicians,” he alleged. The police arrested Paras Som from Haridwar and rescued the woman on the night of January 10. After her statement was recorded before a magistrate, she was sent back home. While being produced in court, Paras Som told reporters, “I am a minor and I have documents to prove it. My Aadhaar card and school certificate will show this.” Meerut jail superintendent Viresh Raj Sharma said the accused had claimed to be a minor. “He has said he should be sent to a child remand home. We have asked him to present these claims before the court,” he said. Circle Officer Ashutosh Kumar said security forces were deployed only to maintain law and order. “The main accused has not submitted any proof of being a minor so far,” he said. The case has triggered political reactions across the state. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party was closely monitoring the situation. “We are with the victim’s family at every step,” he said. Yadav had earlier sent Rs three lakh as financial assistance to the family. The killing sparked protests by Dalit groups and opposition parties, with demands for the immediate arrest of all accused and action against their properties. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati called the incident “extremely heartbreaking and shameful” and urged the government to take crimes against women seriously. The incident has also led to clashes between opposition leaders and the administration after several political delegations were stopped from visiting the victim’s village, even as BJP leaders were allowed access. Courtesy : TOP Note: This news is originally published on https:/theobserverpost.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
‘What’s in a name?’: Rohith Vemula and the enduring caste discrimination in Indian universities
What makes caste discrimination in higher education particularly insidious is that it’s rarely spectacular. Dalit students aren’t always abused openly; more often, they’re quietly diminished. If Rohith Vemula were alive in 2026, he would be around thirty-six years old. One can imagine him as a teacher, a public intellectual, perhaps a scientist or a writer, someone still questioning power, still dreaming, and still believing that knowledge could be a tool for justice. It was ten years ago, on January 17, 2016 that Rohith Vemula was institutionally murdered. His death exposed something far more unsettling: that universities, institutions often celebrated as spaces of reason and modernity, are deeply structured by caste. It underlined that rather than merely reflecting social inequalities beyond their boundaries, universities actively perpetuate them within their classrooms, hostels, evaluation systems, and daily academic activities. Rohith’s death forced into public consciousness what Dalit students had long experienced in silence: that institutions can kill without ever touching the body. When academia mirrors social hierarchies Rohith Vemula’s experience at the University of Hyderabad made visible how institutional failure operates in caste terms. He questioned authority, challenged Brahmanical dominance, and insisted that equality was a right, not a favor. The response was swift and disciplinary: suspension, social boycott, withdrawal of material support, and administrative indifference. The university did not engage with his ideas; it sought to silence his presence. His fellowship was stopped, his access to basic resources denied, and his social world deliberately narrowed. The institution did not pull the trigger, but it created the conditions in which life became unbearable. Rohith’s death thus raised a question that still haunts Indian higher education: what happens when institutions meant to nurture minds instead systematically break them? What makes caste discrimination in higher education particularly insidious is that it is rarely spectacular. Dalit students are not always abused openly; more often, they are quietly diminished. Their ideas are ignored in seminars until echoed by Savarna peers. Their academic labor goes unrecognised, while others receive praise for similar work. They are marked lower in vivas and interviews without explanation and told they lack “clarity,” “rigor,” or “confidence.” Even discrimination has learned to speak the language of civility. The interview and viva systems, far from being neutral instruments of assessment, are structured through deeply embedded biases. They operate on unspoken assumptions about how intelligence should sound, appear, and be performed. Fluency in dominant language registers, familiarity with elite academic culture and specific styles of self-presentation are regarded as indicators of merit, while alternative intellectual expressions are marginalised. In this way, interviews do not merely evaluate candidates; they actively regulate who is deemed academically legitimate, reproducing exclusion through procedure rather than through openly articulated discrimination. Marginalised students, particularly first-generation learners, enter these spaces already marked as out of place. Failure is then framed as individual weakness, never as institutional bias. The myth of merit and the reality of privilege Merit in higher education is commonly framed as a neutral, objective, and caste-free measure of individual ability. This assumption, however, obscures the social conditions under which merit is produced, recognised, and rewarded. Far from being an autonomous attribute, merit is a socially mediated construct that reflects the unequal distribution of social and cultural capital structured by caste hierarchies. According to French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, intergenerational accumulation of cultural capital, linguistic competence, academic disposition, confidence, and familiarity with institutional norms aligns with dominant caste practices. In the Indian context, this capital is explicitly caste-structured: Savarna students enter educational institutions already equipped with embodied dispositions that institutions mistake for intelligence and competence. Dalit students, often first-generation learners, encounter the university as a culturally alien space where evaluative norms are implicit yet rigid, producing systematic misrecognition rather than neutral assessment. Meritocratic evaluations also erase the role of social capital, including access to mentorship, academic networks, and informal guidance. These resources significantly shape academic performance and institutional navigation but remain invisible within formal assessment frameworks. By ignoring such structural advantages, merit discourse converts inherited privilege into individual achievement and structural exclusion into personal failure. Merit thus functions ideologically by naturalising inequality and moralising hierarchy. Success appears deserved, while exclusion is attributed to lack of effort or ability, absolving institutions of responsibility and delegitimising claims for structural redress. In this sense, merit operates as a technology through which caste privilege reproduces itself under the guise of fairness and modernity. This sustained misrecognition constitutes a form of institutional violence. When exclusion is repeatedly framed as individual inadequacy, humiliation becomes normalised and structural discrimination rendered invisible. Merit, in this formulation, is not the absence of caste but one of its most effective contemporary languages, reproducing hierarchy while disavowing it. From embodiment to institutional murder Institutional murder is not an isolated act of individual cruelty; it is the terminal effect of a prolonged regime of humiliation embedded within institutional life. This regime operates through the everyday normalisation of Brahmanical embodiment and the systematic disembodiment of Dalit students in higher education. Brahmanical embodiment structures the university as a space where savarna aesthetics, taste, comportment, and affect are treated as neutral standards of merit and professionalism. These embodied norms confer automatic legitimacy on Savarna bodies while rendering Dalit bodies culturally and epistemically misaligned with the institution. As a result, Dalit students encounter the university not as a space of recognition but as a site of constant correction, surveillance, and disciplining. This process produces institutional humiliation. Humiliation here is not episodic or interpersonal; it is cumulative and structural. It is enacted through repeated questioning of competence, the delegitimisation of lived experience as knowledge, aesthetic policing of language, dress, and emotion, and the persistent marking of Dalit students as “quota,” “beneficiaries,” or disruptions to academic order. Each instance may appear minor or deniable, but together they constitute a continuous assault on dignity. Institutional humiliation functions through disembodiment. Dalit students are compelled to suppress their histories, affects, and cultural presence to survive academically. Their bodies are present but unrecognised; their voices are audible but unauthoritative. This forced erasure generates
Harihar MLA booked for abusing Dalit farmer with casteist slurs
In his complaint, the farmer sought legal action against the MLA, his son and his PA for verbally abusing and threatening him. DAVANAGERE: The Davanagere police have registered an FIR against Harihar MLA BP Harish on charges of abusing a Dalit farmer with casteist slurs. Based on a complaint by Kantaraj of Kadajji village in Davangere taluk, the police booked the MLA under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Harish had gone to the village on January 12 to check on reports of illegal silt removal from a lake for use in agriculture. In the complaint, Kantaraj claimed that the MLA’s car blocked his tractor when he was transporting silt from the lake. “I got down from the tractor and went to the car and saw MLA Harish in it. When I asked why you blocked my tractor, the MLA, his son and his PA got down from the car and asked me on what basis I was lifting the silt. They also reprimanded me rudely,” the complainant said. When Kantaraj made repeated requests to let go, they started to abuse him. The MLA too kept shouting at him, the complaint stated. “Then some people from our village came and even though the MLA, his son and his PA joined them and told them not to lift the soil, they reprimanded me again and abused my caste. Following this, the people near the lake came and formed a group. Then other villagers and elders pacified everyone and sent them away,” Kantaraj said. In his complaint, the farmer sought legal action against the MLA, his son and his PA for verbally abusing and threatening him. A case has been registered against the trio under sections 352 351 (2), 126 (2) of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1986. Recently, a case was registered against Harish on charges of insulting and abusing Davangere SP Uma Prashanth. Courtesy : TNIE Note: This news is originally published on https:/thenewindianexpress.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
Meira Kumar: How A Dalit Woman Reshaped Indian Politics From The Speaker’s Chair
Meira Kumar is a politician and Speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha, who has left her mark on the field of Indian politics. What does it mean to shatter the ceiling when the floor that you stand on has always been irregular? Meira Kumar, India’s first woman Speaker in the Lok Sabha, has shattered political ceilings but also brought her identity of being a Dalit woman as a powerful instrument of advocacy to the heart of politics. Meira Kumar’s life is an adventurous answer to the challenge of representation in justice that can transform the moral geography of the nation. Family background and early years Meira Kumar is a politician and Speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha, who has left her mark on the field of Indian politics. Born in a politically active family with many Dalit leaders and social activists, Meira Kumar’s father Babu Jagjivan Ram was not only a well-known freedom fighter but also Deputy Prime Minister. Her mother, Indrani Devi, was a social worker. Kumar holds B.A. and M.A. in English Literature with LL.B. from the University of Delhi. It is because of Kumar’s parents, particularly her mother’s influence, that she chose to follow the path to justice for everyone. Meira Kumar has been an active social worker since her youth and was associated with various social movements for reforms and human rights. During the famine in the state of Bihar in the year 1967, she was appointed as the Chairperson of National Drought Relief Committee constituted by the Congress and she had also worked towards the establishment of the Family Adoption Scheme, through which drought-affected families would get help from voluntarily contributing households. Through all this, she had gained a good base in the provision of relief before venturing into politics. Career and entry into politics Before entering Politics, Meira Kumar served the Indian Foreign Service for more than a decade, where she was stationed in Spain and the United Kingdom. This job taught her how to negotiate, build bridges between different groups and represent India’s diverse culture to the world. However, she felt a strong pull to work directly on the social issues she cared about at home. She left diplomacy to join politics in 1985, encouraged by her father and by Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister of India. She ran in a by-election for a seat in the Lok Sabha from a constituency in Uttar Pradesh state defeating two other Dalit candidates. Being close to the politically powerful Gandhi family and representing the oppressed castes, Kumar’s political career progressed steadily within the Indian National Congress (INC) and she quickly made a name for herself as a strong advocate for human rights and the abolition of the caste system. Meira Kumar is a highly accomplished politician who has been a member of numerous decision-making bodies within the INC, serving twice as its General Secretary. Meira Kumar is a highly accomplished politician who has been a member of numerous decision-making bodies within the INC, serving twice as its General Secretary. She became a member of the Congress Working Committee, the organisation’s highest decision-making body in 1990 and continued it for a decade till 2000. She resigned from the Congress Party in 2000, citing differences with the party leadership but rejoined it after a gap of two years. In 2004 and 2009 she contested and won the Lok Sabha seat from Sasaram in Bihar state, the constituency once represented by her father. Advocacy for social justice During her political career, she has served on various committees, including the Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Committee on the Empowerment of Women as a Member of Parliament. Additionally, she also served as Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment (2004-2009) which deepened her activism against caste exclusion. She challenged private sector reservation opposition and said sustainable growth needs ending Dalit and tribal marginalisation. Her focus shifted from handouts to true empowerment. Appointed as the Minister of Water Resources in the 14th Lok Sabha shortly after her victory in the elections of 2009, in June of the same year, she achieved a tremendous historical feat as the first woman Lok Sabha Speaker. This moment symbolically meant a lot to women in the state of India. During her role as the Speaker, Meira Kumar achieved many milestones to bring gender equality to the politics of India. She started the gender-neutral rules in the House, replacing gendered terms with gender-neutral expressions in the rules of the House. This action brought a remarkable revolution in the setting of the Parliament to be friendly to all its members irrespective of gender. During her term as the Speaker, in 2011, Kumar reduced paper usage by 30% in the Lok Sabha with tablets and also expressed her support to the increasing nationwide protests against violence on women in the nation. She also announced the formation of a Parliamentary Friendship Group to improve relations with the nation of Bhutan. In speeches, Meira Kumar calls for ‘zero tolerance on prejudice‘ and the end of the caste system. In the 2017 presidential election, Kumar secured the United Progressive Alliance’s nomination as their joint candidate for President of India. This was a testament to her widespread respect as a symbol of social justice, secularism and constitutional values as she said, ‘Democratic values, social justice, transparency, freedom of speech, inclusiveness, destruction of caste system, end of poverty — these are part of the ideology which is close to my heart. For this very reason, on the plank of this ideology I will compete.‘ Thus, her 2017 presidential bid stressed destruction of caste barriers and inclusion. ‘Democratic values, social justice, transparency, freedom of speech, inclusiveness, destruction of caste system, end of poverty — these are part of the ideology which is close to my heart. For this very reason, on the plank of this ideology I will compete.‘ – Meira Kumar At her first press conference after being selected as joint candidate for President, with BJP’s Ram Nath Kovind, whose Dalit
Dalit Class 9 Student Found Dead on Railway Track in Saharanpur, Police Probe Alleged Honour Killing
An alleged honour killing of a Dalit teenager has come to light in the Deoband police station area of Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, after the body of a Class 9 student was found on a railway track. Police said they received information on Thursday about a sack lying on the railway track. A police team rushed to the spot, took the body into custody and sent it for post mortem. Locals at the site later identified the deceased as Mayank, a 14-year-old resident of Alipura or Meghrajpur village. Superintendent of Police Rural Sagar Jain said the boy had been missing since January 12. “The deceased has been identified as Mayank, son of Roopchand, a resident of Alipura village under Deoband police station. A case has been registered based on the complaint given by the family, and the investigation is underway from all angles,” he said. According to the family, Mayank received a phone call from someone in the village on the afternoon of January 12 and was asked to come out immediately. His parents did not stop him as they believed the caller was known to them. When he did not return home, the family searched for him but found no trace until his body was discovered on the railway track. The father has alleged that Mayank was first assaulted and then stabbed to death. He claimed that the accused put the body in a sack and dumped it on the railway track to make the murder look like a train accident or suicide. The plan failed after the loco pilot spotted the sack in time and stopped the train, alerting the police. During the inquiry, Roopchand told police that his son was friends with a minor girl from the village and alleged that her family members were opposed to the relationship. He has named five people, including the girl’s parents, as accused in the case. “The family has accused five people of murdering the boy. We are examining CCTV footage and other technical evidence. Several suspects have been detained and are being questioned,” SP Jain said, adding that strict action will be taken against those found guilty. Police also said that the girl belonged to the same community as Mayank, but opposition from her family over the friendship may have led to the crime. However, officials stressed that the exact motive will be clear only after the post mortem report and completion of the investigation. Courtesy : TOP Note: This news is originally published on https:/theobserverpost.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
UP BJP president meets Dalit veteran to bolster outreach
Lucknow: UP BJP chief Pankaj Chaudhary met party’s former national general secretary of Scheduled Caste wing Diwakar Seth on Makar Sankranti as part of his ongoing outreach to BJP old guards for seeking organisational support. Seth, a Jatav Dalit, was associated with many senior BJP leaders, including former President Ram Nath Kovind and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. Seth has stayed away from party activities for the past few years due to ill health. Sources said the idea for the meeting was mooted by BJP’s SC wing functionaries amid the party’s bid to consolidate Dalits support. “The party will always be grateful to the workers who nurtured it during difficult times by dedicating their energy, time, and resources to the organisation. BJP not only remembers its workers but also stands by them like a family in their joys and sorrows,” Chaudhary said. Analysts said that by meeting Seth—a veteran Dalit leader with deep ideological roots in BJP—Chaudhary has signalled his continuity with the party’s long-standing Dalit outreach narrative. The meeting was significant in the wake of BJP’s focus on strengthening Dalit-OBC social coalition to counter the opposition’s PDA (Picchda–Dalit–Alpsankhyak) pitch which dented the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Analysts said Seth’s Jatav identity will lend resonance to BJP’s Dalit outreach. Reason: Jatavs were traditionally seen as a core support base of the BSP. Any engagement, however symbolic, with influential Jatav leaders will allow the BJP to project inclusivity and historical association with the Dalit community, which accounts for around 21% of the total voters in UP. Soon after taking charge as UP BJP president last month, Chaudhary has been meeting party veterans. He visited Ayodhya and Mirzapur to meet former UP BJP presidents Vinay Katiyar and OP Singh, respectively. Both Katiyar and Singh come from the Kurmi community like Chaudhary. Courtesy : TOI Note: This news is originally published on https:/timesofindia.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights
Dalit’s Land Encroached Upon by Thugs in Jalalabad: Victim Files Complaint with CO, Investigation Ordered
In the Jalalabad tehsil area of Shahjahanpur, a Dalit man’s land has allegedly been forcibly occupied by local strongmen. The victim has filed a complaint with the Circle Officer (CO), who has ordered an investigation into the matter. Rohit Kumar Valmiki, a resident of Barua village in the Madnapur police station area, stated in his application to CO Ajay Kumar Rai that he had purchased 0.401 hectares of land out of a total of 0.535 hectares in plot number 964 in Barua village through a sale deed and was in possession of it. He alleges that a man named Dhirendra Singh, son of Satyapal, fraudulently registered his name on the land. Attempted Forcible Occupation According to Rohit Kumar, recently Dhirendra Singh, along with several accomplices, arrived at his land with a bulldozer and illegal weapons and attempted to forcibly occupy it. When Rohit Kumar and his sons reached the spot and tried to stop them, Dhirendra Singh and his associates allegedly launched a life-threatening attack on them. They also hurled caste-based abuses and threatened to kill them. The victim, Rohit Kumar Valmiki, has appealed to the Circle Officer for justice. Considering the seriousness of the matter, Circle Officer Ajay Kumar Rai has directed the concerned police station to investigate and take necessary action. Ram Niwas Sharma | Jalalabad Courtesy: Hindi News
Dalit Youth Beaten Up in Ayodhya, Allegations of Extortion: Case Not Registered Even After Victim’s Complaint, SHO Says Investigation Underway
A serious case of a Dalit youth being beaten up in Ayodhya’s Amaniganj area for refusing to pay extortion money has come to light. The tractor driver and his Dalit assistant allege that they were demanded Rs. 10,000, and when they refused to pay, they were assaulted. The incident took place near Baba Khaki Das Dharam Kanta on the Amaniganj-Milkipur road near Nandoli village in the Khandasa police station area. According to the victim, their tractor was stopped by a Bolero vehicle, and money was demanded. When they refused to pay, the Dalit youth was severely beaten and his clothes were torn. The victim has filed a complaint with the local police. The police said that they have received complaints from both sides in this matter. The preliminary investigation has revealed that there was a scuffle, and allegations of extortion have also surfaced, which have been corroborated by the statements of several people. The victim’s side has alleged that a woman and her two associates assaulted them. There is also talk in the area that the said woman and one of her associates are of a criminal nature and have previously been to jail in criminal cases. However, the police have not yet officially confirmed this. Local people are also discussing that widespread extortion is being carried out in the area by two alleged journalists and a person with a criminal background. This has created an atmosphere of fear among village heads and other elected representatives. People say that these people reach anywhere and exert pressure, and there are also complaints of them threatening and extorting illegal gains in the name of inspecting the area’s cow shelters. Station House Officer Surendra Kumar Sonkar said that Sub-Inspector Rajendra Prasad is thoroughly investigating the entire incident. Further legal action will be taken after the investigation is complete. Courtesy: Hindi News