Sarpanch beats up Dalit man in Madhya Pradesh for ‘riding bike’ near his house
The matter came to light after a video of the incident circulated on social media, prompting the police to start a probe.
A man, belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), was allegedly beaten up by a village sarpanch in Madhya Pradesh’s Tikamgarh district for passing by the latter’s house riding a motorcycle, police said.
The matter came to light after a video of the incident circulated on social media, prompting the police to start a probe.
According to the victim, Dayaram Ahirwar, the incident took place on June 21.
Dayaram said he was going to the Dharampura village market to make some purchases for his son’s wedding and had passed by sarpanch Hemant Kurmi’s house.
While returning, he was stopped by Hemant, Vinod Kurmi and others. They took him to Hemant’s house where he was verbally abused and also beaten up for daring to ride a motorcycle outside the sarpanch’s house and warned him not to do so again, the police said quoting the victim.
A video clip showing sarpanch Hemant sitting on a chair, grabbing hold of Dayaram’s hair and smacking him went viral on social media.
Dayaram somehow got hold of the video and approached the Dehri police chowki to get a case registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, but the police refused.
However, senior officials also got wind of the video and ordered a probe.
Local police sources claimed that Dayaram had hit the sarpanch’s brother with his motorcycle and this had further angered the sarpanch.
Tikamgarh superintendent of police Kumar Prateek said, “The matter has come to my notice and I have ordered a probe. However, the victim has gone out of the village for a marriage function and we will record his statement and take necessary action once he returns.”