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Who Killed the Six Dalits During Bharat Bandh in Madhya Pradesh?

All the casualties occurred in the state’s Chambal belt, which has a history of the lower caste members being oppressed by the upper castes.
Raja Chauhan

On April 2, Dalits and Adivasis across the country observed a nationwide bandh – Bharat Bandh against a recent Supreme Court Judgment which diluted the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The protests took a violent turn in Madhya Pradesh where eight people – six Dalits and two upper caste members died during the agitations. All these casualties occurred in the state’s Chambal belt – Gwalior, Bhind and Morena -- which has a history of lower castes being oppressed by the upper castes.

While it was widely reported that the deaths occurred due to police firing and clashes between Dalit and upper castes groups, it is now emerging that all these deaths allegedly occurred due to the attacks by the upper castes. Among the six Dalits who died, four of them were killed due to bullet injuries and one died due to an axe injury on his head. Details regarding the death of other Dalit person is yet to be ascertained.

However, only one of the upper caste death, Mahavir Rajawat had occurred due to the bullet injuries from police firing during the bandh. The other, Rahul Pathak, was killed because of his earlier rivalry with another person.

Rakesh Tomatiya Jatav, a 40-year-old daily wage worker from Gwalior, was shot and killed by unidentified persons allegedly belonging to the upper castes. His mourning family claimed that he had joined a gathering of “beldars(construction workers) the morning he was killed.

Deepak Mittal (22) was a resident of Gallakothar locality in Gwalior city. Deepak’s family and neighbours have claimed that hundreds of upper caste men entered their locality and started firing guns in the presence of police. Deepak’s father Mohan Singh said, “the bullet came from the direction of the Tomar building and pierced my son’s body.” ‘Tomar building’ is the resident of Tomars(Thakurs), next to the Dalit settlement.

Bimal Prakash, 26, a resident of Sewaria Pul village which is 40 km away from Gwalior city, was attending coaching classes and was aspiring to become a police officer. His brother Mukesh Jatav had reportedly said that Prakash was passing by the protest march when the upper castes groups allegedly opened fire, resulting in his death.

Akhilesh Yadav, CPI(M) member from Gwalior told Newsclick that all the three Dalits, Rakesh, Deepak and Bimal, who died in their region, were killed in the firings by the upper caste Groups. “While the Dalit groups were protesting unarmed, Upper Castes have opened firings resulting in the deaths of three Dalits in Gwalior and several others injured,” Yadav said.

Dashrath Jatav, a Dalit who participated in the protests, was found dead in an agriculture field in Raun, about 40 km from Bhind town on the next day morning April 3. Reportedly, the postmortem conducted on Dashrath revealed that the deaths caused due to an axe injury on his head.

Pradeep Jatav was part of the protests in Bhind who died due to bullet injuries on that day. While the police denied any firing from their side, District Collector Ilayaraja T told media that Pradeep succumbed to the bullet injuries sustained in clashes between the Dalit groups and Upper Castes.

 

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