Six men arrested for casteist attack on 22-year-old Dalit man in Andhra

The accused – five Reddy men and one Mudiraj man – allegedly forced the complainant, a Mala (SC) man, into a car and went on to assault him, urinate on him, and insult him on the basis of his caste.

A 22-year-old Dalit man in Andhra Pradesh was allegedly assaulted and humiliated by six men from privileged castes, who also urinated on him and made casteist insults. The accused — five Reddy men and one Mudiraj (Backward Class) man – allegedly forced the complainant Shyam Kumar into a rented car and drove him around Guntur and NTR districts on the night of Wednesday, November 1, over a prolonged dispute between two groups of college students. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered the next day, and all the accused were arrested by the Kanchikacherla police on Saturday, November 4.

Shyam, who belongs to the Mala SC community, is a resident of Kanchikacherla. “They assaulted me with sticks and rods. They said, ‘If you Malas (a Scheduled Caste) try to challenge us Reddys, this is how it will be. We are in power’. I was scared and felt helpless, so I stayed quiet. They took me to a place near Guntur outskirts, and ignoring my pleas for water, they made me remove my t-shirt, stood around me, and urinated on me. I pleaded with them to leave me alone but they didn’t. They then took me to the Guntur bus stand, left the car with me and let me go,” Shyam told the media. It remains unclear why the accused left their rented car with the complainant, and how they got away from there.

Shyam also alleged that the accused even stole a chain and some cash from him. According to him, one of the accused said, ‘Remember my name, it’s Harish Reddy. I’m going to the US, no one can do anything to me.” Protests were held by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders in support of Shyam, demanding strict action against the accused. Harish Reddy is the main accused in the case.

Six persons are accused in the FIR, under sections 363 (kidnapping), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The accused and Shyam graduated from the same engineering college in Kanchikacherla, police said. According to Nandigama Rural Circle Inspector IV Nagendra Kumar, there was a dispute between Shyam and the accused concerning a woman about a year ago, and Shyam had once allegedly hit the main accused, Harish Reddy. Holding a grudge over this incident, as they were finishing their final formalities related to college, the accused wanted to get back at Shyam, the CI said. However, he said that the allegations of the accused urinating on the complainant and stealing his belongings seemed to be false, as there wasn’t sufficient supporting evidence.

Kanchikacherla Sub-Inspector of Police PSV Subrahmanyam, on the other hand, said that they found the accused to have indeed beaten up Shyam badly with rods and sticks.

Courtesy : TNM

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