Chhatarpur: An elderly Dalit sarpanch in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand was allegedly assaulted by an upper caste secretary of a gram panchayat on Independence Day on Sunday.
Sources told News18 that the sarpanch was “kicked by the secretary” as he hoisted the national flag on the insistence of the locals and did not wait for the secretary to arrive late.
Sarpanch of village Dhamchi in Chhatarpur Hannu Basor said that the local people approached him saying that he should unfurl the national flag as secretary Sunil Tiwari had not reached the village in the morning. The gram panchayat heeded the request and hoisted the flag in the panchayat building and the school.
Later, when Tiwari reached the village, he was furious to learn that the sarpanch did not wait for him and kicked him. The sarpanch said, “The secretary sahib arrived and asked why did you hoist the flag and I replied that the local people were insisting on it,” he said, adding that the secretary kicked him and he fell to the ground to kick some more .
When the sarpanch’s wife and daughter-in-law ran to save him, the secretary also thrashed them and left them on his four-wheeler, the elder later lodged a complaint with the Orchha Road police station.
Sarpanch’s wife Kattu Bai confirmed that she and her daughter-in-law were also killed by the secretary in an attempt to save the old man from the attack. The woman has suffered minor injuries.
The local people accompanying the Sarpanch also accused the Panchayat Secretary of gross corruption in various schemes.
However, Superintendent of Police Lokendra Singh later claimed that a fight broke out between the two men over the distribution of snacks at the event. A case has been registered for assault on the secretary, the official said.
Chhatrapur is part of Bundelkhand, a geographical region divided into Madhya Pradesh and UP, which has its roots in caste prejudice.
Violence after flag hoisting in Indore
In another incident, a multi-storey building, where the administration has shifted people from poor backgrounds from Raoji Bazar and other areas, got into a scuffle after the flag was hoisted on Sunday. SP Ashutosh Bagri said that there are residents of different communities in the building and when one community was hoisting the flag on Sunday, the use of some objectionable language by the other community led to beatings and stone pelting.
Police reached the spot and controlled the situation. They are now identifying the perpetrators from both the sides with the help of the video of the incident. “We will permanently deploy armed personnel on the spot,” the SP said.
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