The Chamarajanagar district police lodged an FIR (First Information Report) against a lingayat leader under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act-2015, two days after upper-class villagers purified a mini water tank with gaumutra (cow urine) after a Dalit woman drank from it.
The incident took place in Heggatora village of Chamarajanagar district.
The FIR states that a Dalit woman named Shivamma had come to the village to attend a marriage ceremony. Once the ceremony and food were served, she went to a nearby mini water tank to quench her thirst.
This was noticed by some upper-class villagers who objected to her action. After the marriage attendees left the venue, the water from the mini tank was emptied and it was cleaned with gaumutra.
When the news spread, young men belonging to the Dalit community drank water from all public taps as a mark of protest.
Reacting to the incident, Chamarajanagara district in-charge minister V Somanna said such discrimination wouldn’t be tolerated and instructed officials to take stringent action.
V Somanna was recently caught up in controversy for allegedly slapping a woman in a village in Gundlupet here when she went with a plea to resolve her grievance.
During the ceremony, the viral video purportedly showed a woman approaching the minister reportedly pleading with him to allot a plot. The minister turned angry after he was shoved due to the unruly crowd and slapped the woman.
However, the minister’s office shared a video in which the woman said she only pleaded a plot be granted to her as she was too poor.
“I bowed at his feet with the plea and the minister lifted me consoling me that he would help me but it was publicised that he beat me up,” the woman accompanied by her children said in the video.
