A 25-year-old Dalit man was allegedly assaulted and forced to drink urine in Rajasthan’s Churu district earlier this week. The victim Rakesh Meghwal, a resident of Rukhasar village, was attacked on the night of January 26, the police said.
As per the FIR registered on January 27, Meghwal said that on the night in question, one Umesh Jat from his village arrived at his house and asked Meghwal to go with him. When Meghwal refused to do so, he was forced into Umesh’s car by seven others and taken to a nearby field.
“(Accused) Rakesh and Rajesh took out a bottle of alcohol and forcibly made me drink it and after the bottle became empty, Rakesh, Rajesh, Umesh, Tarachand, Akshay, Dinesh, Bidadi Chand and Birbal urinated in that bottle and made me drink it,” mentioned the FIR, registered on the basis of Meghwal’s complaint at Ratangarh police station.
It added that the accused allegedly abused Meghwal with casteist slurs and using a derogatory term for Dalits, questioned their (Dalits) “audacity to go into a confrontation with the Jat community” and said they “will be taught a lesson for this”.
“All of them beat me with sticks and ropes for around half an hour, which has resulted in injury marks on my entire body,” he stated in the FIR. He said the accused later dumped him in the village thinking that he was dead and took away his mobile phone. Meghwal also alleged that the accused had personal enmity with him because of a dispute on Holi over playing a musical instrument.
Eight people – Umesh, Rajesh, Tarachand, Rakesh, Birbal, Akshay, Dinesh and Bidadi Chand – have been named as accused in the FIR which has been registered under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 365 (abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to commit the theft) of the IPC along with relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.
The police said an initial investigation indicated that Meghwal’s allegations were true. “We are trying to arrest the accused. Prima facie, the allegations of Meghwal being assaulted have been found to be true. All the accused are around the same age as him and it appears that there was a dispute. The complainant has said that around a year ago, he had dropped a musical instrument and the accused side had made certain remarks, which resulted in enmity. We are investigating this. Meghwal is able to walk and most of his injuries are on his back, which appears to be made by ropes,” said Ratangarh Circle Officer Himanshu Sharma, who is investigating the case.
This story first appeared on indianexpress.com