Dalit labourer assaulted in UP, two arrested

Bhadohi (UP), Jul 7 (PTI) A Dalit labourer was allegedly assaulted and subjected to casteist abuses by two persons for drinking water from a vessel kept outside a clinic in Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district, police said on Tuesday. Additional Superintendent of Police Shubham Agrawal said the incident took place on June 23 in Kevatahi village and two persons have been arrested. According to the FIR, Bhola Gautam was returning home with fellow labourer Om Prakash Vishwakarma after finishing painting work when he stopped at the clinic allegedly run by a quack, Shiv Ram Bind, to seek medicine for headache. When Gautam asked for water to take the medicine, Bind asked him to fetch water from outside, the officer said. As Gautam took water from a vessel kept on a bucket outside the clinic, a nearby shopkeeper, identified as Subhash Bind, allegedly hurled casteist slurs and questioned how a person belonging to a "lower caste" could drink water from the bucket, the FIR lodged under BNS section 351 (3) (criminal intimidation), 352 (2) (Intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace), and SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act said. Agrawal said Subhash Bind allegedly hit Gautam with a stick, leaving him injured. The complaint further alleged that Shiv Ram Bind also came outside and claimed that the bucket had been "polluted" because a Dalit had drunk water from it. He then allegedly assaulted Gautam and threatened to kill him. Gautam was rescued by his co-worker Om Prakash Vishwakarma and other people present at the spot, police said. The victim sustained injuries to his head, abdomen, back and legs and was first taken to the district hospital before being referred to a hospital in Varanasi, where he underwent treatment for 12 days, the officer said. After being discharged from the hospital, Gautam submitted a complaint to police on July 5. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered against the two accused late on Monday, Agrawal said. He said the investigation has been entrusted to Circle Officer Chaman Singh Chawda and further legal action will be taken on the basis of the report. PTI COR ABN DV DV