Mob beats Dalit man for touching bike belonging to upper-caste man in Karnataka

A 32-year-old Dalit man was stripped and assaulted in Vijaypura, Karnataka by a group of 13 people as reported by NDTV.

Around 540 kilometers from Bengaluru, in Vijayapura Karnataka, a Dalit man was beaten up by a mob of 13 people for allegedly touching the bike of an upper caste man.

The man filed a police report under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act along with sections 143,147, 324, 354, 504, 506, 149 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). The victim also alleges that his family members were attacked after they tried to intervene to rescue him.

A counter-complaint has been filed against the alleged victim, which claims that the crowd attacked the man because he “took off his clothes and made obscene gestures when two girls at the site were washing clothes."

“An atrocity case was reported in Talikote on Saturday about assault on the Dalit man from Minaji village. It was alleged that when he accidentally touched the bike of a man who belonged to the upper caste, he and his family members were assaulted by around 13 men,” said senior police officer Anupam Aggarwal.

“When an investigation team reached the site of the incident today, they were told that the 32-year-old was beaten up when he took off his clothes and started showing his private parts to two girls who were washing clothes. We have registered a counter case under section 354 of the IPC,” Aggarwal added.

The group of attackers in the video are not seen to be following precautionary measures like wearing masks or practising social distancing.