A Dalit youth was allegedly beaten and urinated on by four men in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh, police said Thursday.
The assault took place on the evening of October 14 in Matwara village, some 45 km from the Katni district headquarters. According to the police, the victim, identified as Rajkumar Chaudhary, had objected to illegal excavation on government land near his farm.
Superintendent of Police (Katni) Abhinav Vishwakarma told The Indian Express: “According to our investigation, the complainant, Dalit man, has alleged that he was urinated on by a group of people following an assault. We are probing the allegations”.
The complainant alleged that he was assaulted on October 14. “The local sarpanch was making a gram panchayat bhavan, and there was a dispute over the construction. Both sides fought over this issue. Ramanuj Pandey, Ram Bihari Pandey, Pawan Pandey and Satish Pandey allegedly assaulted and humiliated Rajkumar Chaudhary. All are residents of Matwara village. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The accused are absconding, and efforts are underway to arrest them,” said Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar.
In his complaint to the Katni Superintendent of Police, Chaudhary alleged that on October 13 evening, he had objected to illegal mining activity being carried out by one Ram Bihari Haldkar near Ramgarha hill. Haldkar allegedly hurled casteist abuses at him and threatened to kill him for intervening.
Later that night, as Chaudhary was returning home with his mother, he was allegedly stopped near the village cremation ground by the sarpanch, Ramanuj Pandey, his son Pawan Pandey, nephew Satish Pandey, and several others. The group allegedly kicked and punched him and beat him with iron rods.
According to the complainant, Pawan Pandey, the sarpanch’s son, allegedly urinated on Chaudhary’s face while he lay on the ground. He also allegedly hurled caste slurs and warned the complainant against approaching the police.
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Police said the attack appears to have stemmed from a dispute over the gram panchayat’s recent decision to fill gravel in the village area, which the victim had opposed. The four accused fled the village after the complaint was filed, and a manhunt has been launched to locate them.
The Katni police have booked the accused under sections of the Indian Penal Code for assault and criminal intimidation, along with provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The incident bears a disturbing resemblance to a case that made national headlines in 2023, when a video surfaced from neighbouring Sidhi district showing a tribal youth being urinated upon by an upper-caste man. That incident sparked widespread outrage and became a major political flashpoint ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections later that year.