In a shocking incident, a Dalit railway official was murdered after six men allegedly forced him to consume poison on Saturday, September 6, following a dispute over his relationship with a villager’s daughter.
Durgesh Kumar worked as a loco pilot and hailed from Naushera village in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.
The gruesome incident came to light after a video surfaced on social media platforms, showing Durgesh surrounded by the six men, identified as Ganesh Yadav, Ajay Yadav, Shravan Yadav, Sheru Yadav, Govind Yadav, and Mishra.
The footage shows the Dalit man being pinned down and repeatedly slapped before being forced to ingest poison.
According to his brother, Durgesh was lured by one of the accused, Gyanendra Mishra, under the pretext of ‘settling matters.’
Durgesh managed to call his brother from a second mobile phone hidden in his pocket.
“He told me about the assault and named his attackers. When I reached, I rushed him to the hospital, but the doctors declared him dead within minutes,” Ajit said.
Distraught over a young life mercilessly snatched away, his family and other community members staged a protest by placing the body on the highway, blocking the Azamgarh-Gorakhpur National Highway, demanding immediate arrests of the accused.
Crushed with grief, Durgesh’s father said his son was the only earning member of the family. “They have snatched my son, my light,” he was quoted by Times of India.
An FIR has been lodged under the SC/ST Act and various sections of the BNS. “We have identified the accused and a search team has been formed to nab them,” SP (Rural) Chirag Jain said.
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