Before the Miyapur incident in Kushtagi taluk of Koppal district in which a Dalit family was fined ₹25,000 after its three-year-old child entered a local temple could fade away from public memory, a similar incident has been reported from Karatagi in the that district.
As per information provided by the administration and villagers, Mareppa, a 24-year-old man belonging to Sindolli community of the Scheduled Castes from Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in Karatagi, entered Mahalakshmi Temple in Naganakal village situated on the outskirts of Karatagi and offered puja on September 16.
When he was coming out of the temple, the priest and other villagers took objection to it.
They subsequently held a meeting and demanded ₹5 lakh fine for conducting special pujas and abhisheka for purifying the temple which they claimed was polluted by the entry of a Scheduled Castes man. Later, ₹11,000 was collected from the man.
As the news reached the administration, Karatagi Police rushed the village and filed a suo motu First Information Report on Saturday evening against eight people, temple priest Basavaraj Badiger and villagers Revanayyaswamy, Shekarappa, Sharanappa, Prashanth, Basavaraj, Kadappa Nayak and Durugesh, under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 and Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the police, they have registered a suo motu case since none from the victim’s side came forward to lodge a complaint despite repeated appeals and persuasion.
