Lucknow: A Dalit woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj approached a court alleging that a village head representative assaulted her, used casteist slurs, and threatened her life after local police reportedly failed to take action on her initial complaint.
The incident took place in Lalkarpur village under the Bhitauli police station limits on January 8. The woman complainant, Leelavati, wife of Deenanath, said she met village head representative, Ajay Patel, alias Pintu, near a canal on the way to her daughter’s in-laws’ house in Rajmandir.
According to the complainant, she asked Pintu to return the Rs 30,000 she had earlier lent him. Angered by the demand, the accused began hurling casteist abuses at her.
“When I asked for my money, he got angry, abused me using caste-related words, and assaulted me,” the woman said in her petition. When she protested against the verbal abuses, the accused physically attacked her by punching and kicking her, she alleged.
The Leelavati wrote in her petition that local women came to her rescue after hearing her cries. The accused fled when the women intervened. However, before leaving, he issued severe threats against her.
“The accused threatened to kill me before leaving the spot,” the woman claimed.
Police fail to take action
Following the incident, she promptly informed the police, but the authorities took no action. She later even sent a written complaint to the Superintendent of Police, but the officers did not respond, the woman said.
Seeing there was no serious action being taken in the case, the complainant approached the Special Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Court seeking intervention.
The Court noted the allegations and the Special Judge directed Bhitauli police to swiftly register a case under the SC/ST Act and start legal proceedings against the accused.
Bhitauli Station House Officer Satyendra Kumar Rai confirmed the court’s order. “An FIR has been registered against accused Ajay Patel as per the court’s direction, and legal action is underway,” the SHO told reporters.
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