Madhya Pradesh: Six arrested for allegedly assaulting Dalit men in Shivpuri
The Dalit men were paraded through the village, their faces blackened and garlanded with shoes.
Two Dalit men were assaulted in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district on the suspicion that they had molested some girls, PTI reported on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on June 30 in Warkhadi in the Narwar area of Shivpuri. According to the police, the men were beaten and their faces were blackened. They were also garlanded with shoes and paraded in the village.
The Madhya Pradesh Police said they have registered a case against seven persons, including two women, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, according to NDTV.
Of the seven persons booked, the police have arrested six persons. They have been identified as Ajmat Khan, Arif Khan, Shahid Khan, Islam Khan, Raeesa Bani and Saina Bano. One accused man, Vakil Khan, is on the run, reported The Times of India.
“The accused claimed that two men from the Dalit community were molesting some girls in the village and filmed them discreetly,” Magroni police post-in-charge Deepak Sharma said. “They also claimed that the purported act of the two men was recorded on CCTV cameras.”
He, however, added that the allegations against the two men were found to be false during the investigation, according to PTI.
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra condemned the incident and called it a “Talibani act which shamed humanity.”
“Such acts won’t be tolerated,” he said. “Most of the accused have been arrested. The local administration in Shivpuri has been instructed to invoke the National Security Act against the accused and demolish their illegally built properties.”
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma alleged that the accused were forced to ingest human faeces. However, the police have neither confirmed nor denied this allegation, reported PTI.
The incident comes days after a man was arrested for urinating on an Adivasi person in the Sidhi district of the state.