A Dalit man’s baraat was attacked by upper caste men in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr for passing through their locality and playing DJ music, said the police on Friday.
Around 40 men from the Thakur community stopped the wedding procession hurling casteist slurs and pulled the groom off the horse, reported The Times of India.
The family said the baraatis were brutally thrashed with six people suffering head injuries. They were also forced to go back and threatened not to return to the neighbourhood again.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Rijul Kumar said five people have been arrested in connection with the matter, and a probe is underway to identify the others.
An FIR has been registered against 30 identified and some unknown persons under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections 191 (2) (rioting), 126 (2) (preventing someone from moving freely), 324 (4) (mischief), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of trust) and under sections 3 (1) (b) (c) of the SC/ST Act.
One of the baraatis, Surendra Singh, said that the groom, Bhagwat Singh’s wedding procession was stopped at around 8 pm on Thursday. Dozens of people from the Thakur community “hurled casteist slurs and attacked guests with sticks, iron rods, and sharp objects and forcibly pulled the groom off the horse.”
Six guests, including women, sustained head injuries and bruises on the face. They objected to the baraat passing through their area with the DJ,” said Surendra.
MP Singh, BJP’s national general secretary for the Dalit and Backward caste cell, took up the issue with the party headquarters in Lucknow and the Chief Minister’s Office and wrote a letter to the Union Home Ministry as well, reported The Indian Express.
“This is an unfortunate incident and those who have displayed casteist bias should be dealt with an iron hand so that others may not repeat this in future. I will personally monitor the police action to ensure that those named in the FIR and the others involved do not remain at large,” the BJP leader told local reporters on Friday.
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