Madhya Pradesh: A twenty-five-year-old person died after he was reportedly attacked by two men for touching their food while they were partying together in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur area, the police said on Wednesday.
The dead man, Devraj Anuragi, a Dalit, had went to attend a party hosted by the accused, Bhura Soni and Santosh Pal, in Kishanpur village under Gaurihar police station region, around 100 km from the district headquarters, on Monday night.
Senior police official Sachin Sharma said to reporters that as per statements given by the family members of those dead, Soni and Pal, who are also residents of Kishanpur village, had invited Anuragi for a party at a field.
Anuragi’s family members said to police that after getting back home, he revealed to them that Soni and Pal had beaten him for touching their food, he said.
Mr Sharma said that Anuragi’s family also claimed that he had injuries on his back suggesting that he was attacked with a stick. A few minutes later (on Monday night), he complained of chest pain and died.
He said the police are searching for both Soni and Pal.
The accused duo has been charged under different sections of the Indian Penal Code including murder and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
In 2018, a Dalit man in Mandi area of Himachal Pradesh was thrashed and casteist slurs were flung at him for only touching the palanquin of a deity belonging to the upper caste.
Similarly, in 2019, another 21-year-old Dalit man was beaten for eating dinner seated in front of upper cast men at a wedding in Dehradun.
In October this year, a 65-year-old Dalit man was allegedly thrashed and forced to drink urine after he filed a police complaint against upper-caste men. The occurrence became known from Roda, Lalitpur region of Uttar Pradesh. The accused, recognized as Sonu Yadav, was unhappy as the victim had filed a police complaint against him and wanted him to withdraw the same. Yadav, however, attacked the Dalit man after he wouldn’t agree to settle for a compromise.
