Dalit man beaten for riding motorcycle past sarpanch's home in Madhya Pradesh; police arrests village head and four others

Tikamgarh: A 30-year old Dalit man was allegedly beaten up for riding a motorcycle past the house of a sarpanch in a village in Madhya Pradesh, the police said. [caption id=“attachment_4276369” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] A video purportedly showing the incident has also gone viral on social media. The police on Saturday night arrested the sarpanch of Dharampur village and four others in connection with the incident which occurred last week, Deri police post’s Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Ramsewak Jha said. The victim, Dayaram Ahirwar (a Dalit), in his complaint alleged that on 21 June, the village Sarpanch, Hemant Kurmi, his brothers and one of their neighbours beat him up severely after objecting to his riding a motorcycle in front of their house, Jha said. Ahirwar also stated that the accused told him that he should not have driven through the road in front of their house, instead, he should have dragged the motorcycle without riding on it, the ASI said. After beating the victim, the accused warned him not to repeat his action in future, the complainant told the police. Two days after the incident, a video clip of the incident went viral on social media in which Kurmi was purportedly seen abusing and beating the victim along with the other accused. Based on the victim’s complaint, the police arrested Kurmi, his brothers Vinod Kurmi, Munnu Kurmi and Aniruddh Kurmi, and their neighbour Dinesh Yadav, Jha said. The accused were booked under relevant sections of the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Indian Penal Code sections 341, 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (abuse in public) and 506 (criminal intimidation), he said.