Weeks after the country celebrated the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on April 14, a Dalit youth was allegedly killed by Thakurs in a Saharanpur village on Saturday for urinating in a plot belonging to them, a charge the dominant community denied.
According to the FIR registered by the victim’s father, Ramsharan, Narendra had gone to answer the call of nature on Saturday night when he was mobbed by the Thakurs in Saharanpur’s Fatehpur village.
Narendra was abused and beaten up, said Yogendra Pal, the circle officer of Gangoh area under which the village falls.
The police said when Ramsharan reached the spot and intervened, he was also allegedly beaten.
“The Thakurs alleged that Narendra stole their motor pump. It was then that Jonny, one of the six culprits, shot Narendra and he died on the spot,” added Mr. Pal. Several family members of the victim were also injured in the incident.
The police have arrested five persons and registered a case under sections 302, 323, 504 and 3 (2) of the SC/ST Act.
Later, angry Dalits from the village blocked the Saharanpur-Delhi highway, demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits. Provincial Arms Constabulary personnel were deployed in the village.
Dalit activist like Satish Prakash said the killing of Narendra was not an isolated incident as there had been a series of attacks on Dalits in different parts of Uttar Pradesh.
“I believe that the clash between upper caste and Dalits have gone up because of Dalit assertion in the State over a period of time. In three separate incidents in Saharanpur, Mathura and Meerut alone, there were attacks on the marriage processions of Dalits by members of the Thakur community because they wanted the Dalits not to take the procession through their colonies,” said Dr. Prakash.
