A 28-year-old Dalit driver was allegedly assaulted by a group of upper-caste men in Doda for entering a temple.
Identified as Bittu Ram Bhagat, he is a resident of Hiller Ramban. He visited the Chandi Mata Mandir located in the Ghala Dhar area of Doda on June 18.
Bittu said when he was returning from the temple, upper-caste men hurled abuses and casteist slurs at him abuses for visiting the temple. “After finishing my prayers, when I was on my way and five to six men from the upper caste started abusing me. They took me inside a house and started beating me,” Bittu said.
“They kept repeating ‘how dare you lower-caste people enter the temple. The temple belongs to us’,” he added.
Bittu suffered a fracture in the right arm for which surgery had to be done.
Dalit rights activist advocate Rajat said that it was unfortunate despite filing several complaints with the police, no action was taken for over ten days.
Rajat demanded a case under IPC section 307 against the accused. ” Police have invoked section 325 of IPC in the FIR, which is the section for causing grievous hurt.“Why was section 307 not invoked?” he asked.
