Dalit man brutally assaulted, urinated on ‘for opposing illegal mining’ in MP's Katni
The incident occurred on Tuesday (October 14) in Matwara village.
A Dalit man was beaten up and urinated upon by four people in Katni district in Madhya Pradesh for opposing illegal mining, a police official told PTI on Thursday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday (October 14) in Matwara village, about 45 kilometres from the district headquarters, under Bahoriband police station limits, he said.
"Ramanuj Pandey, Ram Bihari Pandey, Pawan Pandey and Satish Pandey allegedly assaulted and insulted Rajkumar Chaudhary. All five are residents of Matwara village. A case was registered under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act today. The four are on the run and efforts are on to nab them," Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Deharia told PTI. The report did not specify their exact ages.
Sarpanch's son among accused
Chaudhary alleged Pawan Pandey, who is also the village sarpanch's son, urinated on him, used casteist slurs and even threatened to take his life if he approached the police.
The incident was a result of a dispute following the sarpanch's decision to have gravel filled in the gram panchayat. Chaudhary claimed the accused were carrying out illegal mining near his farm. The youth had opposed them.
A similar incident in 2023 in Sidhi district in MP, around 200 kilometres away from Katni had become a major issue in polls.
In the incident, a tribal youth was urinated upon. That incident came to light after a viral video showed Pravesh Shukla, who claims to be a Bharatiya Janata Party worker on social media, abusing a tribal man sitting in the Kubari market of Sidhi district, and later urinating on him in an inebriated state.
