A Dalit was tied to a tree and beaten up in a village in Vijayapura by a fellow villager on the suspicion that the victim’s son had eloped with his daughter.
Mareppa Harijan, a Dalit from Haligondakanal village of Sindgi taluk, in his complaint to the police, said Mehboobsab is the one who assaulted him.
He said his son, Ningappa, had left home a month ago, while the daughter of Mebhoobsab went missing a fortnight ago. This had led Mebhoobsab to believe that Ningappa has eloped with his daughter.
Mehboobsab and his other son Allabaksha allegedly beat up Mareppa and when Ramesh, the second son of Mareppa, came to the rescue, he too was allegedly beaten up.
Mareppa has been admitted to the district government hospital here. Speaking to The Hindu, Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Jain said the police have filed a case against seven persons in connection with the assault. Of them, one has been arrested.
Here is a local media report of the shocking incident –
https://youtu.be/uxO0nS6_Xaw
This is the second instance in recent times of an attack on Dalits by Muslims in Vijayapura district of Karnataka. Earlier this month, a Dalit youth was brutally assaulted and his 21-year-old pregnant Muslim wife was burnt alive by her family members who were against their marriage.
While media reported extensively on the Una flogging case where Dalits were targeted last year and on the recent murder of Muslim youth Junaid, there has been hardly any discussion on this brutal, medieval-style lynching of a Dalit man & his son.
This shocking incident is reminiscent of another case from last year, which too did not elicit media & activist interest, when 19-year-old Srisai Vemula was tied to a tree, stripped, battered, chilly powder thrown in eyes, and finally stoned to death by a Muslim mob in Guntur, Andhra. Vemula’s crime? He tried to rescue his Muslim girlfriend who had hung herself after her family started forcing her to get married elsewhere.
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