Madhya Pradesh Dalit Man Beaten For Riding Bike Past Sarpanch Home: Cops

Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh: A 30-year-old Dalit man was allegedly assaulted for riding a motorcycle past the house of a village head or sarpanch in Madhya Pradesh's Tikamgarh district, 260 kilometres from the state capital Bhopal, the police said today. The sarpanch was captured on video allegedly abusing and beating up the man along with four others. The video went viral two days after the incident occurred on June 21. Based on a complaint filed by the Dalit man, police arrested the village head, his brothers and their neighbor under relevant sections of the SC/ST Act.

Earlier in May, seven people were arrested and another six were charged under the SC/ST Act for forcing a Dalit groom in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district to get down from the horse at his own wedding reception.

Uday Lal was forced to dismount his horse and a few relatives helped him escape. One of the relatives, Suresh Meghwanshi, who helped organize the wedding procession said, "I was hit very badly on my head and legs." He was treated at a hospital and later discharged.

Dayaram Ahirwar, the Dalit man, alleged in his complaint that Dharampur village sarpanch Hemant Kurmi told him that he should have dragged his motorcycle through the road in front of his home, instead of driving past it, according to a Press Trust of India report.

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He also said that Hemant Kurmi's brothers Vinod Kurmi, Munnu Kurmi and Aniruddh Kurmi, and their neighbour Dinesh Yadav, had then threatened him to not repeat the action in future, Mr Ahirwar told police officials, according to PTI.

In April, 27-year-old Sanjay Jatav, a law student and Dalit man, had appealed to the Allahabad High Court to allow for his wedding reception to pass through a Thakur-dominated village in Uttar Pradesh's communally-sensitive Kasganj.

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After the subsequent rejection of his petition from the court, failed discussions with the Thakurs and no assurances given from the state administration later, a compromise was ultimately brokered between both the parties.

(With Inputs From PTI)