3 more held in case of Dalit man ‘forced to lick slippers’

SONBHADRA: Three more arrests have been made in connection with a Dalit man allegedly being beaten up by another man and then forced to lick his slippers in this Uttar Pradesh district, police said on Monday.

A video purportedly of the incident went viral on social media, they said, adding that the accused, a contractual employee of the electricity department, has been “terminated from the service”.

Circle Officer (Ghorawal) Amit Kumar said three more people have been held, taking the total number of arrests made in connection with the incident to four.

All the arrests were made on Sunday evening, police said. In his complaint submitted to police on July 8, Rajendra Chamar said he belongs to the Scheduled Castes (SC) category.

“On July 6, he had gone to his maternal uncle’s place where the electricity supply was disrupted. He was trying to locate the fault when the contractual employee of the power department, Tejbali Singh Patel, started hurling abuses at him. He hurled casteist words at the complainant and also made him lick his chappal. Subsequently, the locals intervened,” a police officer had said on Sunday.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered against Patel under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and other IPC sections.