A Dalit man was allegedly beaten to death by a mob of hundreds over a sexual harassment case filed by his sister in 2019 in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, police said. His sister was also beaten and his mother was stripped naked when she tried to save her son from the attackers.
A case has been filed against the nine main accused and murder charges and stringent SC/ST Act have been invoked against three of them. Eight persons have been arrested, informed Additional Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Uikey.
The 18-year-old victim’s sister alleged some people were pressuring her to compromise in the 2019 case and this led to the attack on them.
Narrating the incident, her mother said, “They thrashed him a lot. He couldn’t survive. Hume beparda kar diya. I was stripped. Then the cops arrived and I was handed a towel. I stood there in a towel until they got me a saree.”
She said the mob also ransacked and vandalized her house. “None of the household items are left intact. Even the pucca roofs were broken,” she rued.
Then they went to another house in search of two more brothers.
The victim’s aunt said a mob forcefully entered her house too and threatened her husband and children. “They would have killed my children and husband too. They entered the house wearing slippers. They even checked our fridge,” she claimed.
The situation remains tense in the village with heavy police force deployed after the incident.
The victim’s family performed his final rites after the district collector assured them of help under government schemes and informed them of the arrests, police said.
In 2019, the victim’s sister had filed a case against four persons over threating and beating charges and four people were arrested in the case that is now in the courts, the officer informed.
The incident triggered a political row in the election-bound state, with the opposition Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party slamming the BJP government. The ruling party said prompt action was taken and accused the Congress of adopting a selective approach on crimes.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge targeted the government over the incident and said Dalit and tribal oppression is happening continuously in Madhya Pradesh, which is due for polls this yearend.
He claimed the state has the highest rate of crimes against Dalits and that “the BJP has made Madhya Pradesh a laboratory of Dalit atrocities.”
State Congress chief Kamal Nath demanded financial assistance for the victim’s family and hinted at BJP links of the accused.
Madhya Pradesh Minister Bhupendra Singh claimed it was the fallout of a dispute between the two sides and accused the Congress of unnecessarily politicising the incident.
State BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal told PTI his party’s government acted promptly in the case whereas Congress governments don’t even bother to take action in cases of Dalit atrocities in states governed by them.
