Hundreds of Dalits, organised under the banner of the Dalit Sangahrsha Samiti and the Dalit Damanitara Swabhimana Horata Samiti, staged a protest in front of the tahsildar’s office at Gudibande in Chikballapur district on Monday seeking a CID probe into the death of a Dalit boy.
Fifteen-year-old Murali was found hanging from a tree at Chokkanahalli in Gudibande taluk on January 20. While the police have registered a case of suicide, the organisations allege that it was a murder. They are demanding that the autopsy of the body be conducted again to ascertain the “real cause of death”.
Murali was studying in class 9 and was friendly with a class 8 girl from an “upper caste family”. According to the protesters, he was beaten to death for this and then hanged so it would look like a suicide.
“The police are trying to hush up the case, which was clearly a murder, and we will continue the agitation till justice was meted out,” said N. Venkatesh, DSS State convener. “The case should be handed over to the CID and the body [should be] exhumed.”
Senior DSS activist and poet-singer Gollahalli Shivaprasad, Janashakti leader Gowri and Aam Aadmi Party leader Mohan Dasari were among those who took part in the protest. Murali’s sister Gayatri, who is doing her postgraduation in Bengaluru, too was present.
