Bhopal: A 25-year-old Dalit youth in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhattarpur district was killed because he touched the plates of ‘upper caste’ men during a party.
The incident occurred nearly 450-km away from the state capital, Bhopal, close to the Uttar Pradesh border on Tuesday evening.
Farm labourer Devraj Anuraji, a resident of Kishanpur village and from the Scheduled Caste community (Kori), was beaten to death by his two ‘upper caste’ friends – Apurva Soni and Santosh Pal – for touching a plate, the police said.
The Gaurihar police booked both the accused on charges of murder and atrocities against Dalits, but they are absconding.
“The deceased and both the accused Apurva and Santosh are of the same village. They killed Devraj for touching the plates of their friends during the party,” said the town inspector of Gaurihar police station Jaswant Singh Rajput.
They have been booked under Section 302 (punishment for murder) and Section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, and police are conducting raids to arrest them, Rajput added.
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Crime against Dalits is not new in Madhya Pradesh. A fortnight ago, a 50-year-old Dalit, Laljiram Ahirwar, resident of Karodh village of Guna district and a farm labourer, was beaten to death by his cousins who belong to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for allegedly not giving them a matchbox so that they could light their cigarettes.
On July 17, Shivpuri police registered a case against seven ‘upper caste’ men for reportedly assaulting five Dalit men over a land dispute in the district.
Latest incident
The incident occurred nearly 125-km away from Chhattarpur headquarter Kishanpur village, close to the Uttar Pradesh border on Tuesday evening.
The accused who are of the same village called Devraj for partying on the outskirts of the village on Tuesday afternoon. They purchased some ingredients and prepared a meal. Around 4 pm, when Apurva Soni and Santosh Pal began to eat the food, the deceased tried to take a plate from numerous available plates there in a bid to eat together.
This act of “touching plates” irked both his upper caste friends and there was an angry exchange of words in the following minutes, the police said.
It turned ugly when the duo attacked Devraj with a stick and beat him until he began to bleed. When Devraj fainted, the duo dropped him at his home claiming that he got injured. He succumbed to injuries around 7 pm.
“The police are continuously looking for the accused and soon they will be behind the bars,” said ASP Chhattarpur, Sameer Sourabh, adding that as per the provisions of prevention of atrocities against SC/STs, victim family will be given Rs 8.25 lakh and other benefits.
Rishav Raj Singh is a journalism student at Makhanlal Chaturvedi University and reports from Madhya Pradesh.
