A Dalit man was allegedly beaten to death by a local Sarpanch and his family members over filling water from a common handpump in Indragarh village of Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district, police said on Wednesday.
According to the police, 27-year-old Narad Jatav, who had come to his maternal aunt Vidya Jatav’s place in Indragarh, died after being allegedly beaten up by village head Padma Singh Dhakad and his family with sticks and rubber pipes over a dispute over filling water from a local handpump to irrigate his fields.
Narad was a resident of the village Duran in Gwalior district.
On the day of the incident on Tuesday, when Narad Jatav began to water his aunt’s fields, Sarpanch Padma Singh Dhakad, his family members Betal Dhakad, Jaswant, Awadhesh, Moharpal, Ankesh and Dakha Bai and Vimal Dhakad engaged into a heated argument with the Dalit man over irrigation of the field, police said.
They first hurled abuse at Narad and then started beating him with wooden sticks and rubber pipes as bystanders looked on and one of them even shot a video on his mobile phone. After Narad fell unconscious, the accused fled the spot.
Narad’s relatives quickly rushed him to the nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
“My brother Narad Jatav had come to Indragarh. Our maternal grandfather has land here. Sarpanch and his family members beat my brother to death over groundwater near the field,” the victim’s brother Rajkumar Jatav said.
Meanwhile, the police have registered a case against eight people after Rajkumar Jatav filed a complaint.
“Four people have been arrested in this case. The two parties had a common bore, due to which there was a dispute over water and a person from Scheduled Caste (SC) was killed. A case has been registered under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989,” senior police officer Sanjeev Mule said.
A hunt for the absconding accused has been launched and further investigation into the matter is underway.
(With inputs from Pramod Bhargava.)
