A 60-year old man from the Dalit community, identified as Sitaram was beaten to death in Shahjahanpur village of Uttar Pradesh. The incident took place after his daughter-in-law, Jhumka Devi threw garbage on the road that leads to one of the assailants’ house.
According to the police, Sitaram’s post-mortem report says that he died due to cardiac arrest. However, his family opposed the claim saying that Sitaram was beaten up and killed by three men in Chamar Kalan village of Madnapur block. As reported by The Times of India, instead of arresting the accused of murder, the Police has registered an FIR under Sections 304 (Culpable Homicide) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
A senior police officer said that Sitaram’s daughter-in-law, Jhumka Devi threw garbage near the house of one of the accused which led to fighting between Sitaram’s family and the three accused- Ankit Yadav, Birbal Yadav, and Vishwanath Yadav. “Sitaram could not escape the situation and was beaten to death with lathis,” he adds. His brother and sister-in-law tried to intervene and save him but fled when they were targeted as well.
He was immediately taken to the hospital but was declared brought dead. Additional superintendent of police says that “a fight broke out between the two groups and the elderly man was injured. He possibly died due to shock”. An FIR has been registered against the alleged attackers, the injuries were small and they didn’t intend to kill him, he adds.
