A Dalit school principal died by suicide on Friday in Gujarat’s Amreli district following he was subjected to casteist violence from caste-Hindus.
52-year-old Kanti Chauhan, the principal of a school in Juna Janjariya village of Bagasara taluka, consumed poison after he was threatened and defamed by the village head Mukesh Borisagar.
“I come from a lower caste but I am doing the work of teaching. Please don’t snatch it away from me. You are trying to malign us by using our caste as a weapon, and it is shameful for you as a sarpanch,” Chauhan said in the video message he recorded before his death.
“The sarpanch has been threatening and asking me to hand over the grants which I had received. He also circulated a defamatory message about me and my caste in social media groups of villagers,” Chauhan said.
According to a Times of India report, The village head, Mukesh Borisagar, allegedly pressurised Chauhan to divert school management committee (SMC) funds disbursed by the Gujarat government for other purposes in the village.
The police told the newspaper that Borisagar and another person named Vipul Kyada had successfully ‘conspired’ for Chauhan’s removal as principal, although he continued to be in charge.
Chauhan had died in hospital while being treated for consuming poison.
Dalit men and women in Chauhan’s village gathered in front of the village police station on Saturday and refused to accept his body. They relented only after police detained Borisagar and filed a case against him, Kyada and three teachers from Chauhan’s school, Ranjan Lathiya, Hansa Tank and Bhavna.
The police registered a case under section 306 [abetment of suicide] of the IPC and various sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
