After the peegate in Madhya Pradesh, in a similar incident at Dalit youth at Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh was beaten and forced to lick the shoes of a muscleman. The accused, a contractual lineman in the electricity department was arrested by police on Sunday and his services were terminated. The UP Police has lodged FIR against the lineman, Tejbali Singh under SC/ST act and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The incident occurred in Sonbhadra last week when a Dalit youth, who too is a lineman, had gone to meet his maternal uncle in Baldih village under Shahganj police station jurisdiction. On seeing the electricity of the area out of order, the Dalit youth repaired it which irked the other lineman, Tejbali Singh. Tejbali Singh was deployed in the area and is known as muscleman. Tejbali caught hold of the Dalit youth and beat him badly in front of the village men. Not only had this Singh forced the Dalit youth to lick his shoes.
Watch the video here:
The humiliating incident
According to the Shahganj police, the electricity connection of the maternal uncle of Dalit youth was stripped due to non-payment and Tejbali Singh was asked for money for restoring it. The Dalit youth not only restored the connection but also got the electricity supply of few others in the village repaired after taking some money. When he came to know about this, Tejbali reached the village and started beating the Dalit youth. He snatched the money from the Dalit youth and forced him to lick his shoes, some villagers video graphed the entire incident and made it viral on Saturday.
After coming to know about the incident the electricity department terminated the services of contractual lineman Tejbali Singh. The Director General of Police (DGP), UP, took a serious note of the incident and sent the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of range, RP Singh on the spot and asked him to take stern action against the accused. On Sunday the DIG reached Baldih and talked to the family of Dalit youth assuring them of action against the accused. On Sunday evening the Sonbhadra police arrested him.
Samajwadi Party Chief slams BJP for Dalit exploitation.
Reacting sharply at the incident, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the Bharatiya Janta Party Government has created history in Dalit exploitation. He questioned as to why the bulldozer of UP Govt. is punctured on such occasions. The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party too tweeted against the BJP Govt. regarding the Sonbhadra incident.
