Farrukhnagar: 8 arrested, minor detained for assault on Dalit man in Jatola

Police said the assault stemmed from a Diwali-night dispute over firecrackers; eight men were jailed and a minor released on bail.

Eight men were arrested, and a juvenile was apprehended on Saturday for allegedly assaulting a 20-year-old Dalit man in Jatola village, Farrukhnagar, after a dispute over bursting firecrackers on Diwali night, police said. 

The attack followed a dispute in Jatola village; police registered a case under the SC/ST Act and took eight men into judicial custody. (File photo)

According to investigators, the victim, an ITI diploma student, alleged that the assailants attacked him with sticks and iron rods and hurled caste-based slurs.

Police said the dispute began when the victim and his five friends had asked two men not to burst crackers near them on Diwali night. The two groups allegedly clashed that evening, but the matter was settled then, officers said. 

However, around 7.30pm on Thursday, an argument broke out again when the victim was seated on an empty plot outside his house, police said. According to police quoting the complaint, the accused, including the 16-year-old minor, attacked him, following which the victim ran towards his home and tried to lock himself in. The suspects allegedly forced their way inside, assaulted him again, and fled after issuing threats to him and his family. 

The victim submitted a written complaint at the Farrukhnagar police station on Friday, after which an FIR was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for offences including voluntarily causing hurt, rioting with deadly weapons, and criminal intimidation. 

 Those arrested were identified as Ankit Kumar, 20; Himanshu, 21; Aanshu, 19; Pawan Kumar, 23; and Abhay, 20, all residents of Jatola; along with Yogesh Kumar, 22, of Farrukhnagar, and Rachit Kumar, 21, and Anshu, 20, of Rewari. The juvenile was granted bail, while the remaining eight accused were sent to judicial custody on Saturday. 

Assistant commissioner of police (Pataudi) Sukhbir Singh said the assault appeared to have stemmed from tensions between two groups of young men in the village over “mingling with rival factions”. “Three of the arrested accused are also from the same community as the victim,” he added. 

“The Thursday night assault was a retaliatory act. The victim sustained minor bruises, as per the medical examination report,” Singh said. 

The victim had also allegedly claimed the minor had urinated on him during the assault, but police dismissed the allegation. “Several eyewitnesses present at the spot denied that the victim was urinated upon,” ACP Singh said, adding that the allegation was not corroborated in the investigation.