Police say special teams have been formed to capture the accused, who are currently missing
A 25-year-old Dalit man with an unspecified mental illness was beaten to death by two of his friends - who were from OBC communities - allegedly for touching their food during a private event at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district on Monday.
Police say the young man - identified as Devraj Anuragi - was eating outside his home in Kishanpura village, which is around 450 km from state capital Bhopal, when the accused - Santosh Pal and Rohit Soni - picked him to clear up after a party on their farm. When Anuragi helped himself to some food there, they flew into a rage and beat him to death with sticks.
"They dropped him off (after the brutal assault) at his home after two hours. The deceased youth's family alleged that before breathing his last, Devraj Anuragi told them his two friends and he were at a party where he touched their food. Enraged, the two friends assaulted him with hard and blunt objects that resulted in his death," Sameer Saurabh, the Additional Superintendent of Police, said.
Mr Saurabh said special teams had been formed to track down and arrest the accused, who have been booked for murder and are currently missing.
Just ten days ago a 50-year-old Dalit man was beaten to death by two men from the powerful Yadav community after he did not give them matchsticks to light their cigarettes.
A few days after that, a Dalit family was allegedly forced to leave their village in Shivpuri district after being harassed and tortured by a local OBC family. The family in question is reportedly related to Suresh Dhakad Rathkheda, a minister and a loyalist of BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia.
The Dalit family was tortured because they did not vote for the minister - who was one of several to follow Mr Scindia from the Congress to the BJP - in Assembly bypolls held last month.
Last year two Dalit children were also beaten to death in the same district - also by two men allegedly belonging to the Yadav community - for defecating in the open.