Days after he was purportedly seen flashing a gun and causing a ruckus at a Dalit wedding in a video, the brother of Bageshwar Dham’s Dhirendra Shastri has been booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Saurabh Garg aka Shaligram, who also allegedly used casteist slurs, is yet to be arrested. He was allegedly angered by the decision of the bride’s family to hold the marriage separately instead of the Bageshwar Dham’s mass marriage event.
The incident took place in the early hours of February 12 at the wedding of Akash Ahirwar and Sita Ahirwar, in Garha village of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, where the Bageshwar Dham is situated.
“It was around 12 in the night. People were eating food and the DJ was playing music. Suddenly, Shastri’s brother arrived with some men and began quarreling…besides expletives, he also used casteist slurs. He was intoxicated,” said Suresh Kumar, a resident of Aktauhan village who was present at the wedding.
Hariprasad, who was part of the wedding procession, said that Garg was “hurling casteist slurs and saying that the Dalit family didn’t get their daughter married at the mass ceremony. The woman’s family was asked by the dham to conduct the marriage there.”
He allegedly insisted that songs from the Bageshwar Dham be played at the wedding instead of popular numbers. “This made him angry and he started fighting. He stopped the music.”
In an ensuing scuffle, several people were allegedly assaulted and many chairs broken. The video purportedly shows Garg hurling swear words with a gun in his hand as villagers say “leave it, maharaj”.
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here