FIR after 2 Dalit men beaten up with belts

Lucknow: In an incident of road rage, a Dalit man and his relative, both in 20s, were beaten up with belts and abused with casteist slur in full public view in Indiranagar. Police registered a case and are looking for accused persons.
Those named in the case were identified as Akash Yadav and Shivam Yadav.
The victim Raj Rawat, along with his relative Shiva Rawat, was going for some work on a bike when their bike hit another bike coming from the opposite direction and a verbal spat ensued near Churman Purwa locality.
The accused Akash Yadav began abusing Raj Rawat which the latter opposed, and this further infuriated the accused who untied his belt and started beating Raj while hurling casteist aspersions on him,” said the victim in his FIR to the police.
The victim’s brother Anand Rawat, who lodged a case, said Akash also supported Raj’s friends for intervening into the brawl.
“Raj’s friends were passing near the scene and they attempted to stop Akash who also beat them with the belt,” Anand said in the FIR.
He said another accused Shivam later phoned Raj and threatened dire consequences for reporting the matter to police. “But we decided to bring Akash and Shivam to the books finally and lodged an FIR,’ he said.
DCP North Zone, Qasim Abidi, said that prima facie it has come to fore that the accused and victims were not acquainted with each other in the past nor had an enmity.
“An FIR under the charges of prevention of atrocities against ST/SC act and probe is underway,” he said.