Bhopal: A viral video of a man allegedly urinating on a mentally-ill tribal in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district has caused outrage, prompting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to order action.
The undated video purportedly shows the man smoking a cigarette and nonchalantly relieving himself on the person sitting on a footpath. The police have identified the suspect as Pravesh Shukla, who’s currently absconding.
The victim, meanwhile, has been identified as 36-year-old Dashmat Rawat, a tribal man from the Karaundi village in Sidhi, where the incident allegedly occurred.
In his tweet on Tuesday evening, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said: “A viral video has come to light and I have ordered the district administration to take stringent action and also invoke NSA against the accused”.
मेरे संज्ञान में सीधी जिले का एक वायरल वीडियो आया है…
मैंने प्रशासन को निर्देश दिए हैं कि अपराधी को गिरफ्तार कर कड़ी से कड़ी कार्रवाई कर एनएसए भी लगाया जाए।
— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) July 4, 2023
Pravesh, according to the police, was booked under Sections 294 (obscene acts and songs) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code, along with relevant sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Locals, meanwhile, claimed that Pravesh was drunk at the time and that the video is three months old.
ThePrint was not able to independently verify this claim.
Meanwhile, the Congress has claimed that Pravesh is a representative of Sidhi MLA Kedarnath Shukla — an allegation that the latter has denied. The BJP legislator did, however, admit to knowing him.
“Pravesh Shukla is not my representative, nor does he hold any posts in the BJP. He’s a voter in my constituency whom I know,” he said. “An MLA can appoint three representatives — one each at zilla panchayat, nagar panchayat and at janpad panchayat. At Nagar Palika, my representative is Dinesh Gupta, at the janpad panchayat it’s Uma Shankar Yadav and at zilla panchayat it’s Sumant Dwivedi.”
Sidhi Superintendent of Police Ravindra Verma said that the police had taken the incident seriously and had booked the suspect.
सोशल मीडिया में वायरल हो रहे वीडियो जिसमे एक व्यक्ति सिंगरेट पीते हुये सामने बैठे व्यक्ति पर पेशाब कर रहा है को गंभीरता से लेते हुये। वीडियो को तस्दीक कर आरोपी प्रवेश शुक्ला निवासी कुबरी के विरुद्ध भा. द. वि. एवं एसटी/एससी एक्ट के तहत मामला पंजीबद्ध किया जाकर ..@ChouhanShivraj
— SP_Sidhi_MP (@sp_sidhi) July 4, 2023
Madhya Pradesh has a significant tribal population — at about 1.53 crore, tribals account for 21.10 percent of the state’s 7.2 crore population. Of the total 230 assembly seats, 47 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 35 for Scheduled Castes.
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‘Misuse of identity’
Sidhi MLA Kedarnath Shukla claimed it appeared that Pravesh had “misused” his identity.
“I’m currently in Bhopal and once I reach Sidhi, I will tell the police to act against this as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, locals claim that three months ago, a drunken Pravesh first assaulted Rawat and forced another passerby, whom he also allegedly beat up, to shoot the video.
A village resident who didn’t want to be named said that the clip went viral after Pravesh himself shared it with villagers.
Inspector Pawan Singh, who’s in charge of the Behri Police Station, where the case has been filed, said the department was looking for the suspect.
“We had not received the video earlier, nor did we get a complaint. After it came to light, we registered the case,” he told ThePrint , explaining the delay in booking Pravesh.
Congress leaders, meanwhile, claimed that the incident showed “the BJP’s mindset” when it came to tribals and demanded an apology.
“The man in the video is Pravesh Shukla, who is an MLA representative of BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla,” MP Youth Congress president Vikrant Bhuria. “That act shows what BJP really thinks of tribals of MP. Merely giving helicopter rides to tribals won’t change their situation on the ground.”
He was referring to four tribals riding the chief minister’s official helicopter in 2021.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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