Upper caste Thhakur attack on Dalit wedding procession leads to clash in UP
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Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh): Tension prevailed in Dhalna village in Bulandshahr district after an attack on a wedding procession. Thakurs and Dalits clashed when the baraat, taken out by Dalits on Tuesday, was allegedly attacked by upper castes.
A large contingent of police was deployed in the area to defuse the tension. Following the heckling of baraat, the Thakurs on Thursday called a panchayat over the issue, which the police stopped.
"A baraat of Dalits was passing through a lane on Tuesday night, in which a board bearing the name of Maharana Pratap was damaged. But we remained calm. On Wednesday, some 40 men, armed with lathis, attacked our locality, uprooted the damaged board and jumped on it, besides indulging in stone-pelting, "Sanjeev Rana, one of the complainants, said.
A video of the violence went viral on social media on Wednesday morning.
Police booked ten people of the Dalit community for rioting, voluntarily causing hurt and breach of peace, among other offences.
The Dalits alleged that Thakurs had attacked the baraat. "Our procession was peacefully passing through the lane where most of the houses belong to the upper caste. They started abusing us and half a dozen men attacked us with lathis," claimed Vinay Kumar.
Responding to his complaint, five Thakur men have been booked under the SC/ST Act and for rioting and causing violence.
"Heavy police force has been deployed in the village but there is calm now. Both groups have filed FIRs against one another. Some 120 people have been bound by surety bonds, and both groups have been instructed not to indulge in violence." Santosh Kumar Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Bulandshahr, said.