A Dalit man in Patna was shot dead for dancing at a wedding in Bihar on Wednesday night.
Naveen Manjhi, who belonged to the Musahar community, was warned by some guests to stop dancing. However, when the victim continued to dance, someone from the crowd shot him dead.
The incident led to clashes between the villagers and the wedding crowd. During the clashes, several members of the crowd were beaten up and half a dozen vehicles were set on fire.
While police have been deployed to keep the situation under control, no arrests have been made in the case so far.
Representational Image | Source: Indian Express
Manjhi’s body has been sent for postmortem and as investigations are on.
The incident comes less than a week after a 13-year-old Dalit boy was recently thrashed by four Rajput men in Gujarat. His crime was that he was spotted wearing a ‘mojdi‘, an ethnic leather footwear worn by upper caste men in the state.
Now, Una happens in Maharashtra. Dalit boys are humiliated and beaten up only for jumping into the well of non dalit caste people. Had the justice be ensured to the victims of Una, this wouldn’t have happened. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/rYL9vR2Olw
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) June 14, 2018
“When I was sitting near the bus stop, a group of youths came to me and asked me my caste. When I said that I am a Dalit, they asked me why I was wearing mojdi despite being a Dalit. When I tried to save myself by claiming that I am a Rajput, they forcibly took me to a place and thrashed me,” the boy said in his complaint. “They slapped and punched me and beat me with a stick. They accused me of trying to be a Rajput by wearing such shoes. I somehow managed to escape and came home.”
A video of the assault had gone viral on social media.
This came a few days after three minor Dalit boys were beaten, stripped and paraded nude in a village in Maharashtra for swimming in a village well. The incident, which took place in Vakadi village on June 10, came to light after a video showing the boys being paraded in the streets went viral.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
