A 21-year-old Dalit man was allegedly assaulted in Pappanadu village of Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu for owning a high-end bike. The police apprehended six caste Hindus.
The victim has been identified as N Pachilin from Vellur.
The incident occurred on the night of October 13, when Pachilin, who works in an eatery shop in Papanadu, was returning home.
He was stopped by the prime accused, T Gopinath, who allegedly told him, “People from your caste should not be riding such an expensive bike,” to which the young Dalit replied that he had brought the bike with his hard-earned money and has every right to own it.
Pachilin’s reply angered Gopinath. Later that night, he and five of his friends rammed into the Dalit man’s house and brutally assaulted him with wooden sticks, shouting caste slurs. “They beat me and kept saying I should not ride a bike like that,” Pachilin told the police.
A case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered and all six men – Gopinath, V Likanthan, A Sarathi, M Arunkumar, K Udhayan, and A Prahadeeswaran were arrested the following day.
Further investigations are on.
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