​Dalit sadhu assaulted, paraded by upper caste men

Bareilly: Eight upper caste men were booked by the police on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting and parading a Dalit

sadhu

in Jalalabad town of Shahjahanpur district, an act whose video has gone viral on social media. The man, Dharamdas, is battling for his life in a hospital.
Dharamdas had a dispute with some locals over a piece of land in his Sarai Sadho village of Jalalabad area. An FIR was also filed in the dispute but the case was later closed by the police, according to the

complaint

filed by the niece of the sadhu.
“On Tuesday morning, when Dharamdas was sitting outside his house, the accused came and starting dragging him. They thrashed him mercilessly with sticks, rods and steel ‘chimta’,” according to the complaint.

Dharamdas was

paraded

in the street by the accused, who kept on assaulting him, the niece said, adding that after some locals confronted the attackers, they left him and fled from the spot. A case was registered under relevant sections of IPC and SC/ ST act against the accused, who are on the run. Inspector of Jalalabad police station, Rajiv Mishra, told TOI, “We have registered a case under Section 147 (punishment for rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and Section 3(1) of SC/St Act against the accused, However no arrest has been made.”