Upper caste farmer, son ‘thrash’ Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh, booked

Victim’s husband alleges that he had to make rounds of the police station in the Banda district for several days to get the case registered

Written by Manish Sahu

Lucknow, The accused have been identified as Rajendra Singh, also known as Badelala, and his son Jitendra Pratap Singh, residents of Sikauhula village.

The police booked an upper caste farmer and his son for allegedly beating and subjecting a Dalit woman to casteist abuse for collecting water from their tubewell in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district. The police said the Dalit woman works as an agricultural labourer.

Moni Nishad, Station House Officer, Jaspura police station (Banda), said the case was filed based on the complaint of the victim, Sita Devi, 36. She added that no arrests have been made yet and a probe is underway.

The accused have been identified as Rajendra Singh, also known as Badelala, and his son Jitendra Pratap Singh, residents of Sikauhula village. The incident reportedly took place on August 6, but the police registered the FIR on Saturday.

When asked about the delay in filing the FIR, Sita Devi’s husband, Puttu Sonkar, 43, said he had been making rounds of the police station for several days trying to get the case registered.

“I also lodged a complaint about the incident with the police control room. The police finally lodged the case on August 10,” said Sonkar, who does odd jobs for a living.

Sonkar further said that his wife and others were working in the field of Chandra Shekhar, the cousin of the accused Rajendra Singh, on August 6. But around 2 pm, his wife felt thirsty and went to a nearby tubewell belonging to Rajendra Singh.

“Chandra Shekhar’s and Rajendra Singh’s fields are located next to each other. My wife saw a pot lying near the tubewell and picked it up to collect water. In the meantime, Rajendra Singh and his son Jitendra Pratap arrived and started abusing her for picking up the pot,” Sonkar said.

 “They used casteist remarks, telling her, ‘You belong to a low caste; don’t drink water from here.’ When she responded, ‘Okay, we are of a low caste; we will go elsewhere to drink water. But don’t abuse me,’ they began to slap her,” the victim’s husband recounted.

Other women working in the field rushed to the spot and intervened, after which the father and the son left the scene, he added.

The FIR has been lodged under Sections 115 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The police have also invoked the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the accused.

Courtesy: Indian Express

Note: This news was originally published in indianexpress.com and was used completely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes especially for human rights.