Taking strong exception to an incident in which a 12-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly stripped naked and thrashed at Malout in Punjab’s Sri Muktsar Sahib district, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Friday sought an action-taken report from government officials.
The Dalit boy was allegedly assaulted by his mother’s former partner. “My husband left me and our son seven years ago. After that, I entered into a relationship with Arshdeep Singh, a resident of Sarawan Bodla village. Soon, he got married to someone else but he used to visit my house. When I tried to end the relationship, he started harassing me and my son. One day, he visited my house, stripped naked my 12-year-old son and thrashed him brutally. He also shot a video of the incident, which he later uploaded on the internet,” the Dalit woman said in her complaint.
The woman further alleged that the Malout police did not help her, even when the man threatened her with dire consequences while inside the police station.
The commission has asked the Ferozepur divisional commissioner, the Sri Muktsar Sahib deputy commissioner and senior superintendent of police, and the Faridkot inspector-general of police to investigate the matter and submit the report before May 26.
Commission chairman Vijay Sampla said that if the action-taken report was not received on time, the commission might issue summonses for the officers, exercising the powers of a civil court that are conferred on it under Article 338 of the Constitution.
This article first appeared on indianexpress.com