Dalit house set afire in Haryana, 2 kids charred

FARIDABAD:In a suspected case of intercaste violence two children of a Dalit family were burnt alive and their parents suffered injuries after some persons reportedly belonging to an upper caste set their house afire at Sunped village of Faridabad district around 3am on Tuesday

Updated At : 07:23 PM Oct 21, 2015 IST

The room where two minor children were burnt to death at Sunped village in Faridabad district on Tuesday. Sayeed Ahmed

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, October 20

In a suspected case of inter-caste violence, two children of a Dalit family were burnt alive and their parents suffered injuries after some persons, reportedly belonging to an upper caste, set their house afire at Sunped village of Faridabad district around 3am on Tuesday.

While two-year-old Vaibhav and nine-month-old Divya died on the spot, their mother Rekha was admitted to Safdarjang Hospital with 25 per cent “deep burns” and father Jitender was discharged after being treated for minor burns on his forearms.

Police Commissioner Subhash Yadav said: “Three persons have been arrested so far, though nine have been named in the FIR. Adequate police force has been deployed in the village to ensure law and order.”

Sources quote an old enmity between the Dalit and a Rajput family as the reason for the attack. On October 5, 2014, three persons of the accused Rajput family were lynched to death allegedly by the victim Dalit family after a quarrel over a mobile phone. Thereafter, 11 Dalits were arrested and six policemen were deployed in the village to protect three Dalit families allegedly involved in the triple murder.

A case under relevant sections of the IPC and SC/ST Act has been registered. Those arrested have been identified as village former sarpanch Balwant Singh, Jagat and Kartar.

Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal said: “The situation is under control and the government has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the victims.”

Four policemen, including Inspector Anil Kumar, officer-in-charge of Sadar Ballagbarh police station, have been suspended for dereliction of duty. Constables who have been suspended are Bali Mohammed, Vikas and Sandeep.

All three were posted in the village to protect the three Dalit families. The incident took place when the Dalit family was asleep. The two doors of their house were locked from outside and petrol was poured on the house before it was set on fire. Roopwati, wife of arrested accused Kartar, said her husband was innocent and was being framed wrongly. “The police are biased and acting without looking into the real cause,” she alleged.

Blaming the “ugly caste politics”, 82-year-old Babu Ram, a local resident, said: “The social atmosphere in the village was very cordial till the triple murder took place last year.” Ramsharan, another villager, blames it on declaring the sarpanch’s post open to the general category. “The upcoming panchayat polls may have prompted Rajputs to attack Dalits,” he said. With Jitender’s claim of being present in the house at the time of the attack under scanner, the police said the matter was being probed from all angles.

Besides a team of the National SC/ST Commission, political leaders who visited the villager were former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, Udit Raj, BJP MP from north-west Delhi, and Ramdas Athawale, Republic Party of India MP from Maharashtra.