Bengaluru: A Dalit student was beaten up by Hindutva activists in Karnataka's Bidar district on Monday, the day the Ram temple in Ayodhya was consecrated, according to The Quint. The student allegedly published an offensive remark on social media regarding Bhimrao Ambedkar and the deities Ram and Hanuman.
“When I was coming back from college, they stopped me and said that I had posted a status insulting Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman,” he said. in a police complaint. “When I told them that I did not do anything wrong, they grabbed me and made me sit inside an autorickshaw.”
Videos on social media showed guys dressed in saffron slapping the 17-year-old as he exited an autorickshaw. The boy is then escorted to a temple and shown lying on the ground before the deity. He is also forced to yell "Jai Shri Ram".
The police opened an investigation on Tuesday after the videos went viral. They apprehended three men suspected of being involved in the assault, Scroll.in reported.
The case has been registered under Section 506 (criminal intimidation), 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under provisions of The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.