''Kin of thrashed Dalit boys under pressure withdraw case''

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 16

Relatives of three Dalit boys who were allegedly beaten up upper-caste villagers in Wakhadi village Maharashtra's Jalgaon district hare being pressurised to withdraw cases filed against the attackers, according to the opposition Congress party.

Congress representatives who visited the families of the victims blamed Maharashtra's Water Resources Minister Ganesh Mahajan for influencing the kin of the victims. Mahajan however denied the allegation.

A former Congress minister Abdul Sattar, who led the delegation, accused the Jalgaon Superintendent of Police Datta Karale of trying to hush up the case under pressure from upper-caste villagers.

According to Congress party leaders, the local police had conducted a panchnama of a well different from the one in which the boys were swimming in order to dilute the case against the attackers. According to an FIR filed under the Atrocities Act, the boys were thrashed for swimming in a well whose water was used for drinking. This is however
being denied by the opposition parties.

NCP leader Nawab Malik went on to say that the young boys who bathed in a well allegedly belonging to upper-caste people were beaten mercilessly only because they belonged to the backward Matang caste.

Both leaders felt that cases have been filed only against some of the villagers who participated in the assault.

Republican Party of India leader Prakash Ambedkar felt that entire groups of villagers should be collectively penalized when such attacks on Dalits take place. "We will ensure that the families of the boys are not forced to withdraw the cases against them," Ambedkar said.

Videos of the attack which were uploaded in the social media showed the boys being stripped beaten up with sticks and belts.