Dalit man stripped, beaten with sticks and slippers in Karnataka

A Dalit man in Karnataka was pinned to the ground, stripped and beaten by an angry mob after he allegedly ‘touched the bike’ of a caste Hindu man.

The incident happened on Saturday in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district, around 530 kms away from the state capital, Bengaluru. It was captured on a video and was circulated on social media. The Dalit man accidentally touched the bike of a caste hindu, for which he, along with his family were lynched by an angry mob.

The gruesome video shows more than 15 men surrounding the man who lies helplessly on the ground, stripping him and beating him with slippers and sticks even as he cries out in pain.

After he was assaulted, the man reached the police station to file a complaint and narrated the horror unleashed on him.

“An atrocity case was reported in Talikote yesterday about assault on the Dalit Man from Minaji village. It was alleged that when he accidentally touched the bike of a man who belonged to the upper caste that he and his family members were assaulted by some 13 men,” said senior police officer Anupam Aggarwal, NDTV reported.

Thirteen people were named in the complaint and have been booked under SC/ST act and various other appropriate sections under the Indian Penal Code. Some of the accused have been taken to the police station for questioning.

Some villagers even allege that the man purportedly misbehaved with a few women.

It was recently only on June 16 that another atrocity against a Dalit couple in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh surfaced, where a video of huge number of policemen dragging and beating a Dalit farmer couple surfaced online. The district collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) were transferred following pressure from the opposition.