SC, ST panel to probe Dalit devotee’s killing

PATNA: The state BJP leaders, including leader of the Opposition Sushil Modi, have expressed concern over the reported killing of Dalit for attempting to offer puja to Goddess Durga in Bahera village of Kaimur district as well as conver-sion of Hindus into Christianity by a missionary institution in Sikarian under Indrapuri police station of the adjoining Rohtas district.
The leaders also demanded a probe into the matter. Party sources said National SC and ST Commission chairman Vijay Sonkar Shastri assured a BJP delegation, led by Modi, on Friday to get the Bahera incident probed.
Other members of the delegation were the party’s MLAs Sukhda Pandey, Vishwanath Baitha, Rameshwar Prasad, Ram Prawesh Rai, Ram Narayan Mandal and Satyadeo Narayan Arya.
With regard to the conversion of Hindus, BJP MLA from Nokha Rameshwar Prasad, in a letter to deputy prime minister L K Advani, has demanded a CBI probe into. Prasad said as many as 5,000 Hindus have been converted into Christianity by a missionary institution, GEMS, based at Sikarian in Rohtas district.
Shastri appeared to have taken a serious note of the Bahera incident, where upper caste men prevented Dalits from offering puja and killed one of them, Ram Lal Ram, apart from causing injury to Sipahi Ram.
Besides, they also entered the house of Ram Lal’s daughter-in-law Kaus-halya Devi and beat up her children.
Ironically, for generations, the entry of Dalits into Shiv Mandir that stands near their village has been prohibited, they informed Shastri.
For the last five years, a committee consisting of Dalits and other sections in the village had been in existence to manage the Durga Puja festivities. While Dalits made the idol of Durga, they were not allowed to offer puja.
On the fateful day, when Dalits dared to break the prohibitory order and appeared before the pandal, it climaxed into the killing of Ram Lal and injury to Meanwhile, Sonkar Shastri called on CM Rabri Devi and RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav on Friday evening and discussed with them the welfare schemes undertaken by the state government.
The state social welfare minister, Pitamber Paswan, was also present on the occasion.The CM told Shastri that several measures were being taken for the welfare of SCs and STs, including construction of hostels and houses. She said her government takes crime against Dalits seriously.