After refusing to “honour” a pledge, a 35-year-old Dalit man was chained and assaulted without food and water for 31 hours in Rajasthan’s Bundi district.
According to the FIR registered, the victim – Radheshyam Meghwal, a resident of Biluba village in Bundi district, worked as an unskilled labourer for the main accused – Paramjit Singh.
Meghwal had no land or property and hence he was forced to work as a bonded labourer. “Three years back, I had started working for Paramjit Sardar, a resident of Alfa Nagar as a hali (unofficial annual work contract as a labourer). Paramjit kept me as a hali from May 2019 to April 2020 for 12 months. I needed money for the wedding of my sister. I had taken Rs 70,000 for 12 months wages and Rs 30,000 as a loan from Paramjit’,” the FIR stated.
Meghwal worked 24 hours a day in the fields and overlooked animal husbandry work for six months. However, the work severely affected his health following which he had to leave the job.
Paramjit then started demanding Rs 1,10,000 from Meghwal and the latter paid him Rs 25,000 after working as a labourer in another place, the FIR stated.
However, things spiralled when Paramjit started adding 3 per cent interest to the amount. In 2021, Paramjit forcibly took him away and made Megwal harvest wheat for 10 days without paying any remuneration.
“On May 22, Paramjit, his younger brother and their four friends abused me with casteist slurs and abducted me to Paramjit’s house. They kept me chained at a cattle shed and tortured me with iron pipes. They kept me hungry for 31 hours, chained at the cattle shed,” says the FIR.
The FIR has been registered against Pramajit, his younger brother and four others under sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 343 (wrongful confinement for three or more days), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Dalit activist murdered
Dalit atrocities are becoming a common factor in Rajasthan wherein yet another incident, a 23-year-old Dalit activist was brutally murdered with his throat slit on May 27. The victim – Rajkumar – used to make Dalit leader Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s idols and sang missionary songs.
There has been no FIR lodged till now.
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