MP: Two Dalit men allegedly abused with casteist slurs, assaulted; six held

In his complaint filed at the Javar police station, Sobhalsingh said the incident took place on June 12 when the accused, identified as Narayan Singh Sendhav, Rajendra Singh and Vijendra Singh, came to their house. They sought to know why the family had kept bricks near the area which was used to dump garbage.

Sobhalsingh said when he and his father asked them to stop abusing them, Narayan Singh picked up some rods lying nearby and hit Harinath, while Sobhalsingh was attacked by Rajendra Singh. When two of their family members tried to intervene, three more people identified as Bhairusingh Sendhav, Lokendra Sendhav and Manohar Sendhav also attacked the family with rods and sticks.

“While leaving, they threatened to kill us if we failed to remove the bricks from the spot of the garbage dumping,” Sobhandsingh said in his complaint to the police.

Sobhalsingh, who works as a labourer, said the accused called him “bagatto”. Bagari is a sub-caste of the Dalit community in the profession of making brooms in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, and are often referred to as bagatto.

Sobhansingh’s brother Vijaysingh Solanki (17) said, “The fight started after these men took offence as my sister-in-law asked them not to throw garbage in front of our house, which was recently allocated to us by the government. They also tried to burn our house down after the incident. When we left for the hospital, they threw away our vessels and disconnected our power supply.

It wasn’t the first time the family had gotten into a tussle with the Sendhavs, who are powerful in the village, pointed out Sobhansingh’s nephew Deepak. “We had earlier asked them to stop throwing garbage, but they abused us and continued to do so,” he added.

When contacted, Town Inspector Madan Evenes of Jawar police station where an FIR has been registered, said the tussle broke out over a compost pit near Sobhansingh’s house on government land left on the other side of the road. “People would throw cow dung into it and that became a bone of contention between the two. There are complaints made by both sides, and the case is being investigated.

The police has registered a case under Section 294 (using obscene acts and songs), 323 (Punishment for voluntary causing hurt) and 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section, 3(1), 3(2) of the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Sunil Asthe of the Bhim Army in Sehore said, “To water down the case, the police has not mentioned that their house was burnt down. Instead, attempt to murder has been invoked. The family was also given medical treatment after intervention by us.”