Dalit oppression in Jharkhand: Workers brutally beaten in police lockup

arun Posted On May 24, 2024

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Sensational news has come of Dalit and tribal laborers being brutally beaten by the police for 3 days in Manika police station Hajat under Latehar district of Jharkhand. The incident took place on May 2, just the second day of Labor Day.

Vishad Kumar

According to the news, Ashok Yadav was given the work of cleaning the old CRPF camp and painting the old buildings by the block administration. Ashok Yadav had employed laborers for the above work. That day was the third day of work for the workers. Due to poverty, not all laborers bring lunch from home. In such a situation, he had just ordered a full meal for Rs 5 at the Dal-Bhaat center in Manika when the policemen of Manika police station arrived there in a car. Before the workers could understand anything, the police loaded all the workers in their vehicle and took them to the police station. There the police confiscated Lallu Ram’s mobile phone and those laborers were interrogated regarding the theft of truck tires from the campus. But those workers had no idea about the theft of this tyre. Therefore, after expressing ignorance on the matter, the police station officer started beating the workers.

In the words of Rameshwar Singh, a resident of Sadhwadih, a constable hit him with an iron baton and hit him on his back. Then he held his ear and lifted it up tightly. Due to this, blood suddenly started flowing from his mouth. Lallu Ram told – He was brutally beaten with a fiber stick. In the course of this fight, Dev Narayan Singh admitted that on the evening of May 1, Ashok Yadav had opened the tire of the truck and taken him to his home in his tractor. After a few hours, Ashok Yadav himself reached the police station in search of the laborers and admitted in the police station that he had stolen the tyre. Despite this, the laborers were not released and were beaten brutally.

Beaten brutally.

Not only this, 45 year old daily wage laborer and Dalit Lallu Ram, resident of Namudag (Dubjarva Tola) of Manika, was kept in the custody of Manika police station for 3 days and beaten brutally without any crime. Along with him, other laborers Dev Narayan Singh, Vijay Singh, Pehalwan Singh, Rameshwar Singh and a deaf and mute disabled person, all residents of Sadhwadih, were also kept locked in the police station overnight.

Let us tell you that in order to get false testimony against Ashok Yadav, resident of Bhadai Bathan, accused of theft of tire along with the rim from the former CRPF camp complex located in the block complex, that “we have seen Ashok Yadav stealing”, the police arrested all the laborers except the deaf and mute disabled laborer. Beaten brutally. On May 3, after being kept in jail overnight and beaten, Lallu Ram, Narayan Singh and Vijay Singh were taken by the police to Latehar District Court to record their statement under Code of Criminal Procedure 164 in case number 28/2024.

The three laborers told before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shashi Bhushan Sharma that they confessed to the incident and gave false statements to the police to save themselves from being brutally beaten by the police station officer. After recording their statement under Section 164, the three daily wage laborers were again brought to Manika police station by the police. Police Station Officer Jai Prakash Sharma lost his temper and showed his unruly form, brutally beating the three laborers from the evening of Friday 3rd May to 8.00 pm on Saturday 4th May and Lallu Ram was hit on both his thighs and back. He was beaten severely and the thumb of his right hand was broken.

Lallu Ram’s wife Rajo Devi tells that when her husband did not reach home till 8.00 pm on Thursday, May 2, I got worried when he did not come and then rang his mobile. But the call was not received from there. Rajo Devi told in a tearful voice that due to worry we did not prepare dinner. His two sons, who work as laborers outside Bangalore and Hyderabad, called him and informed him about the incident. Both of them also tried their best to contact on phone. But no one received the call.

The next day, on Friday, May 3, at 11.00 am, someone from the village told Rajo Devi that her husband was being held in the police station of Manika police station. Rajo Devi’s mind became extremely worried as to whether her husband had committed such a crime that he was taken to the police station.

Lallu Ram told that on all the days the laborers were kept in the police station, they were given food at 10.00 pm on the first day. On the second day, breakfast was given at 8.00 in the morning and dinner at 10.00 in the night and the next day only breakfast was given, lunch etc. was not given anything to eat. Whereas he was released at 8.00 pm.

The series of misdeeds of the police did not end here, they are still searching for Lallu Ram till his homes. On May 17 and May 18 also, the police had come to Lallu Ram’s house in Namudag at 5.00 pm in search of him. But coincidentally that day Lallu Ram had gone to his sister-in-law’s house in Revatkala village of Manika police station. Lallu Ram’s entire family is scared and shocked by this action of Manika Thanedar.

The victim family is completely landless and lives in thatched houses. It’s going to rain in just a few days. Now they have to repair their house. But the right thumb has been fractured due to police beating, the doctor has said that the plaster will not open for at least 15 to 20 days. In this situation, Lallu Ram will neither be able to work as a laborer nor will he be able to bear the expenses of medicines and doctors.

In this regard, social activist James Hereng met the victims’ families and took detailed information. He described this police action as a heinous crime. Also said that humanitarian police repression towards Dalits, tribals and exploited people is not a new phenomenon. During the tenure of Thanedar Bhanu Pratap, many cases like brutal beating of a 75 year old man from Dundu without any crime, conspiracy to save bank employee Raunak Shukla by not doing legal tax in favor of a minor child of village Kui, etc., will be found, in which the police officers clearly They have been seen defining the law in their own way. As far as this incident is concerned, an FIR will be lodged against the guilty police station officer and the policemen involved in the incident under relevant sections of SC/ST atrocity Act-1989. If necessary, doors from High Court to Supreme Court will be knocked. But the public will not remain silent regarding this matter.