SIT to probe Saharanpur violence

Homes belonging to people from Dalit Community lie abandoned after members from the Rajput community allegedly vandalised them in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur District of Uttar Pradesh on May 14, 2017.

The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Thakur-Dalit caste violence in Saharanpur.

The SIT will consist of 10 police inspectors and will be headed by the Superintendent of Police (Crime), Saharanpur, according to a press statement from the office of U.P. Director General of Police. It will probe all the 40 FIRs filed from May 5 to May 23.

State Home Secretary Mani Prasad Mishra told

The Hindu on Friday that many confidence-building measures had to be taken as there was an impression that innocent people had been arrested for the violence. “The police will probe all the cases. If there is no evidence against those arrested in the last two weeks, then they will be released,” Mr. Mishra had said.

One person died, over a dozen seriously injured and sixty houses of Dalits were burnt down when violence erupted between Thakurs and Dalits in Shabbirpur in May.

The clash started when Dalits objected to the “loud music” during a Maharana Pratap memorial procession taken out by the local Thakur community allegedly without police permission. Violence erupted again in the area on May 9 and May 23.

Hearing tomorrow

The formation of the SIT comes a day after a public interest litigation (PIL) petition was filed in the Allahabad High Court demanding a judicial probe.

The PIL filed by Ramendra Nath sought compensation for the affected Dalits. The Bench of Chief Justice Dilip Babsaheb Bhosale and Justice M.K. Gupta fixed May 30 as the date for the next hearing.