'Teri aukaat kya hai': Greater Noida Dalit youth beaten over ‘status’ on birthday dies; Congress blames BJP govt
Two men have been arrested in connection with the incident that occurred on the night of October 15 in Greater Noida's Mohalla Ambedkar
A Dalit youth died on Friday at a Delhi hospital, days after he was attacked during a birthday celebration outside his home in Rabupura area of Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida, police said.
Two men have been arrested in connection with the incident that occurred on the night of October 15. Two accused identified as Yuvraj and Jitu, have been arrested, and efforts are on to trace the remaining suspects, news agency PTI quoted station house officer (SHO), Rabupura, Sujeet Upadhyay as saying.
Grief and simmering tension gripped Mohalla Ambedkar in Greater Noida as the body was brought home that afternoon under heavy police deployment.
It took nearly an hour of negotiations in the narrow lane, packed with dozens of onlookers, before the family - demanding justice for Aniket Jatav allowed the body to be taken for cremation, Indian Express reported.
Aniket - whose age was conflicting across reports - worked as a mechanic and driver and was allegedly attacked by “upper-caste” men on the night of October 15, his birthday. "He had just cut the cake when they came," The Indian Express report quoted Aniket's uncle Sumit as saying. "They had been threatening him for weeks," he said.
Sumit himself was also allegedly beaten; his right eye was swollen purple and blue on Friday.
On Friday afternoon, scores of male mourners sat on charpoys and plastic chairs outside Aniket's home near Ambedkar Chowk, while inside the courtyard waves of wailing women rose and fell.
"Arre Annu, mere Annu," Aniket's mother cried, clutching her chest as relatives held her tightly.
Throughout the day, a stream of politicians arrived to offer condolences. Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh of the BJP sat quietly among the mourners and later told reporters he had arranged a call with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. "The CM has assured strict action," he said. Local leaders from the BSP and Samajwadi Party also visited and pledged support.
Modi govt failed to protect Dalits, says Cong
The opposition reacted strongly to the incident, slamming handling of caste violence by the government. Taking to social media platform X, Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his and his double-engine governments have “completely failed” to protect the lives of Dalits.
"A 17-year-old Dalit boy in Greater Noida was brutally beaten by a group of upper-caste goons on his birthday. "Tera aukaat kya hai [what is your status]…", this is what the attackers said while thrashing him. The boy, Aniket, who was battling for his life in the hospital, has now died," Shama Mohamed said in her post.
“Every week or two, we see reports of Dalits being killed in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. @narendramodi and his double-engine governments have completely failed to protect the lives of Dalits,” the post added.
How trouble began for Aniket
The Rabupura police filed an FIR on October 17, two days after the alleged assault, naming seven upper-caste men; two have been arrested and the others remain absconding.
While a police officer said investigators suspect a social media post could have led to the episode, Sumit said the trouble began a month earlier after Aniket intervened at a local Ramleela, where a group of Thakur men were allegedly abusing a friend, as per the Indian Express report.
Sumit said casteist slurs followed, and the tensions escalated. "Two days before the attack, they caught Aniket outside his house and hit him with a rock," Sumit said. "Aniket slapped one of them in retaliation. They told him that he had forgotten his aukat [status]," Sumit said.
On the night of the assault, as Aniket cut his birthday cake in a nearby field, Sumit says the same group returned with rods and hockey sticks. "They started hitting me. I thought Aniket must have escaped. But we later found him lying unconscious behind some bushes, his body soaked in blood," Sumit said. Both men were taken to a local hospital and then referred to a Delhi hospital; Sumit was discharged two days ago.
"An FIR was first lodged for assault, and it was later amended to murder… We are verifying the allegations of caste abuse. A case under the SC/ST Act has been registered, and efforts are on to arrest and identify the remaining accused," the report quoted SHO Sujeet Upadhyay.
The Jatavs of Rabupura - a large Dalit community along the southern edge of Gautam Buddh Nagar district - live alongside upper-caste families who, villagers say, control much of the land.
Aniket's father is unemployed. His mother said her eldest son was the family's sole earner. "He fixed motorbikes all day, brought home whatever he could. That money kept us going," she said.
"They killed my son," she cried, adding: "We don't want money. We don't want a job. We want blood for blood".
