Thrashed for sporting a moustache, says Dalit man in Barmer; FIR filed

The Barmer police said a FIR has been filed against seven people on a complaint by the 30-year-old man and a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer assigned to take up the investigations.

A 30-year-old Dalit man in Rajasthan’s Barmer has alleged that he was beaten up by a group of upper-caste men on Sunday evening for sporting a moustache, police said.

Police said a large number of people from the Dalit community in Barmer converged at the Kotwali police station to demand strict action against the accused (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The man, Hemant Meghwal of Marudi village, told the police that the attack took place two days after some people from the upper castes issued a diktat prohibiting Dalits from sporting a moustache, wearing sunglasses or sitting on a chair outside their house.

Kotwali police station sub-inspector Chain Prakash said Hemant Meghwal was at a salon when a group of 5-10 men barged in and started thrashing him for his moustache. Meghwal told the police that two of his friends who intervened to save him were also beaten up.

He also alleged that the accused also took ₹1,500.

Police said a case has been registered for causing hurt, criminal intimidation, theft, unlawful assembly and rioting under the Indian Penal Code and under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against seven accused.