New Delhi: A Dalit man in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district has alleged that another man from a different caste smeared human faeces on his face and head on Friday, July 21.
News agency PTI reported that the accused is named Ramkripal Patel and belongs to an Other Backward Class community.
The Dalit man, named Dashrath Ahirwar, filed a police complaint on Saturday, July 22 alleging that Patel smeared human faeces on his face and head after he accidentally touched Patel with grease.
Ahirwar told reporters that his local panchayat fined him Rs 600 when he tried to report the incident to its members at a meeting.
His police complaint says that the incident took place when he was doing construction work and Patel was bathing at a hand pump nearby.
“I had some grease on my hand and by mistake that grease got smeared on Patel. After that, Patel brought human faeces lying nearby in a mug he was using for bathing and smeared it on my body including head and face. I filed the FIR the next day since I was busy with work,” Ahirwar told local media according to the Indian Express.
He also alleges that Patel abused him on casteist lines, PTI reported. Patel was detained on Saturday following Ahirwar’s complaint.
This incident comes less than a month after a video was widely circulated showing a man allegedly urinating on someone from a Scheduled Tribe community in the same state’s Sidhi district.
The offending man has since been identified as Pravesh Shukla. Police arrested him on July 4 and registered a case against him under the National Security Act and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
A similar case was reported from Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district earlier this month, where a group of nine young men allegedly assaulted and then urinated on the face of a tribal man following a disagreement, The Hindu reported.
Three men and three minors have been arrested in that case as of Friday, July 20 and local police invoked the Prevention of Atrocities Act against the accused.
Police in Chhatarpur have also invoked the Prevention of Atrocities Act against Patel. The Act is meant to protect members of the Scheduled Castes (also known as Dalits) and Scheduled Tribes, which are historically marginalised communities, from discrimination.
“A case is being registered against Ramkripal Patel under sections 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” sub-divisional officer of police Manmohan Singh Baghel told PTI.
Baghel added that Ahirwar and others working to construct a drain in Bikaura village were “joking with Patel” and “hurling things at each other playfully” following which Patel threw faeces at Ahirwar.