UP: 4 arrested for running over Dalit woman who objected to rash driving
The woman died and four members of her family were injured.
The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested four men for allegedly running their SUV over a group of Dalits who objected to their alleged rash driving in Bulandshahr, The Indian Express reported on Friday.
A woman, Sheela Devi, was killed and four others were injured in the incident, which took place on Tuesday.
The Dalit family was resting outside their home when a group of men from the Thakur community drove very close to them, the newspaper quoted the first information report as saying.
The woman’s son, Bhupendra Kumar, told The Indian Express: “The car barely missed our feet and a few of our animals that were on the road.”
Kumar said that he, his mother and three family members had been resting outside the home because there was no electricity and that it was “not as if they were in the middle of the road”.
He said that he had shouted at the vehicle, asking the driver to drive slower, the newspaper reported.
The car stopped and two men who were in the vehicle allegedly made casteist remarks at Kumar. They left following a brief argument, The Times of India reported.
Six men carrying weapons returned to the site in an SUV and allegedly ran over the family, according to the FIR.
“They drove at full-speed…the car stopped after running over my mother and then it reversed in high-speed over her again,” The Indian Express quoted Kumar as having alleged.
His mother died on the spot. Kumar and three of his family members were taken to hospital.
On Tuesday night, the police arrested the car’s driver Priyanshu Thakur and Atul Thakur. Manav Thakur and Krishna Thakur were arrested the next day. Three suspects – Tapesh Thakur, Varun Singh and Ashu – are absconding, the newspaper reported.
Shanker Prasad, the Bulandshahr (city) superintendent of police, told The Times of India that the suspects have been booked under sections of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita pertaining to murder, attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and rioting.
They were also booked under sections of the 1989 Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
