The police in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district registered two first information reports in connection with an incident in which two Dalit youths accused of goat theft were allegedly assaulted, tonsured and garlanded with slippers, reported The Indian Express on Saturday.

The incident reportedly took place on December 27 in the jurisdiction of Biridi police station. Odisha Congress leader Amiya Pandav brough attention to the case by sharing a video of the alleged assault on X on Saturday morning.

The Indian Express reported that the two men were allegedly chased by locals while they were transporting two goats in an auto rickshaw. They were later rescued by the police, charged with theft, arrested and sent to judicial custody.

They were eventually released on bail.

Seven persons have been booked for the alleged assault under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, along with sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

In a complaint filed on January 1, the father of one of the victims claimed that his son and his friend were returning from Simadala village when a few locals “detained their autorickshaw near the Baredia bridge near the panchayat office and asked my son about his name and nativity”.

“While they heard his name, they abused my son and his friend in obscene language by casting aspersions on their caste and accusing them of stealing goats,” the father’s complaint read. The mob allegedly robbed a silver necklace belonging to his son during the assault.

Jagatsinghpur Superintendent of Police Bhawani Sankar Udgata said that the authorities were investigating the case to identify all those involved. “We will take necessary legal action against them,” he told The Indian Express.

Condemning the incident, Pandav wrote on X: “Lawlessness is the prime feature of BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] ruled Odisha. See how two Dalit youths were treated in Jagatsinghpur! Human dignity is in danger, shame on the double engine Sarkar [a synonym for the BJP state and central governments].”

The BJP won 78 out of Odisha’s 147 Assembly seats in the Assembly election last year. The Biju Janata Dal, which was in power in the state since March 2000, got 51 seats while the Congress won 14 seats.