Tank ‘purified’ after Dalit woman drinks water from it

The Dalit woman from another place came to Heggatora village on Saturday and drank water from the storage tank set up on an upper-caste locality.

A few upper caste villagers in Chamarajanagar district drained out drinking water from a public storage tank and “purified” it with cow urine after a Dalit woman drank water from it, officials said.

Soon after the incident went viral on social media, the tehsildar and social welfare department officials rushed to spot and conducted an enquiry. (Representative photo)

The Dalit woman from another place came to Heggatora village on Saturday and drank water from the storage tank set up on an upper-caste locality. Then the Lingayats drained the water out and purified the tanks with cow urine.

Soon after the incident went viral on social media, the tehsildar and social welfare department officials rushed to spot and conducted an enquiry.

“On Friday, there was a wedding in the Dalit community at the village. The woman came from HD Kote to attend the wedding. She drank water from the public tank and hurriedly got into the bus. Soon after, the villagers abused the woman and decided to purify the tank,” a villager said.

The revenue inspector and village accountant conducted a spot inspection and confirmed the incident. The officials later submitted a report to the tehsildar.

“The social welfare department officers are trying to trace the woman to record her statement and file a complaint. Elders of the Dalit community have already registered an FIR at the Chamarajanagara rural police station,” tehsildar Basavaraju said.

“The eyewitnesses confirmed that the purification was done. Soon after we find the woman, we will make her file a police complaint and stringent action will be initiated against the guilty,” he added.

Reacting to the incident, Chamarajanagara district in-charge minister V Somanna said he would not tolerate such discrimination and instructed officers to take stringent action.