Madhya Pradesh Shocker: Dalit man beaten to death, his mother stripped naked after they refused to withdraw 2019 complaint of sexual harassment filed by her sister, 8 arrested

A Dalit man was beaten to death in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday for allegedly refusing to withdraw a complaint of sexual assault lodged by his sister against the accused, now arrested by police. The incident took place at Barodia Naunagir village of Sagar district. The mother of the deceased was allegedly stripped naked and the girl, complainant of sexual harassment, was assaulted. In 2019 the sister of the deceased had lodged a police complaint to sexual harassment against against Vikram Singh Thakur, 28 years old, the prime accused. Police claim since then he had been pressurising the family to withdraw the case: 

“Vikram Singh was booked for sexually harassing the victim’s sister in 2019, and has since been pressuring them to withdraw the case. On Thursday, Singh had an altercation with the victim at his home, which soon escalated. The prime accused later called his family members who joined him in assaulting the victim and his mother,” said Lokesh Sinha, Additional Superintendent of Police, Sagar.

All nine including Vikram have been arrested by police. Vikram Singh Thakur, who belongs to the upper caste, reportedly first vandalised the victim’s house and then brutally assaulted him. When the mother tried to intervene, Vikram and his family members stripped her naked, claim police. 

“Vikram Singh, Lokesh Singh and Azaad Singh came to the house and pressurised us to withdraw the sexual harassment case. After we refused , they vandalised the house. They then left the house and found my brother near the bus stand in the village and started thrashing him. When my mother went there to intervene, they beat her up and stripped her. I pleaded with them to leave them. However, they threatened to rape me. I ran into a jungle and called the police for help,” said the sister of the deceased, who had lodged the sexual harassment case in 2019. 

The incident triggered a political row in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, with the opposition Congress and BSP slamming the BJP government for cracking down enough over caste based discrimination and crimes. “BJP has made Madhya Pradesh a laboratory of Dalit atrocities", said Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress President. On the other hand Kamal Nath, former CM and congress leader claimed the accused are associated with BJP. 

All the arrested accused are booked under Section 307, 302 of IPC and the SC/ST Act also applied. The mother of the deceased has alleged that her modesty was outraged in public. “They stripped off my saree, when police found me, they got me a towel to cover me and later got me a saree” recalled she.