Mumbai: The Opposition in Maharashtra has hit out at the Eknath Shinde government after four Dalit men were allegedly tortured in Ahmednagar district on the suspicion of stealing pigeons and a goat.
Six accused — all from an ‘upper-caste’ community — beat up the four men with sticks, hung them upside down from a tree, urinated on them, and lobbed casteist slur at them, according to the FIR, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint.
The incident took place Friday in Haregaon village of Shrirampur taluka. A video of the alleged torture subsequently surfaced on social media.
The accused have been identified as Yuvraj Galande, Manoj Bodke, Pappu Parakhe, Deepak Gaikwad, Durgesh Vaidya and Raju Borag. A case has been registered under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 364 (kidnapping), and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
One of the suspects was arrested Sunday, while the other five remain at large.
Referring to the incident, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said the “BJP [a coalition partner in the state government] is trying to disturb the communal harmony in society”. “They are trying to spread hate and this incident is a fallout. This incident is a blot on humanity,” he added.
Jitendra Ahwad, an MLA of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) said on social media platform X that “the fear of law and order is over from Maharashtra”.
“The triple-engine government is only busy in advertising. Maharashtra is moving fast towards becoming a cow belt.”
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) spokesperson Anand Dubey said “such kind of incidents should not happen in the future”.
“They divide the society, and the government should make sure such things are not repeated,” he added.
Also Read: Violence goes viral — Dalits in Rajasthan have a new tool against atrocities, their phones
What happened Friday
Speaking to the media Sunday, Ahmednagar Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Swati Bhor said the “incident occurred on 25 August”.
“An FIR has been registered in this case on the complaint of one of the victims, Shubham Maghade. The victims have alleged that they were thrashed badly. They accused the victims of stealing pigeons and [a] goat,” she added.
Maghade, a nursing student, stays in Haregaon with his grandparents, according to the FIR.
Maghade, the FIR says, was returning home around 5 pm Friday when two of the accused came on a bike to pick him up and take him to Yuvraj Galande’s house.
When Maghade reached there, the accused were reportedly already drunk. He says in the FIR that he saw the three other victims had already been beaten up and tied inside a cow shelter.
“All of them [accused] are Maratha by community (upper caste) and I know them and they know that I am from a lower caste. They told me to remove my clothes. When I resisted, they started beating me up,” his complaint says.
The six upper caste men reportedly accused him of stealing pigeons. According to Maghade’s account, two of the accused spat on their shoes and asked him to lick it off and also urinated on him.
“They passed casteist slur and said this is the worth of my caste and we people are worthy of being spit upon,” the FIR quotes Maghade as saying.
Maghade said the four men were then hung upside down from a tree. A villager identified as Deepak Vahul came to the spot to rescue them, and he reportedly shot the video.
The accused subsequently let Maghade and the others go, but with a “threat against going to police”. From there, the ASP told the media, the injured men were taken to a hospital nearby.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: NSA & SC/ST Act — all about the stringent laws invoked against MP man who urinated on tribal