Suspected of stealing wheat, 3 Dalit boys thrashed, paraded with shaved heads in UP village

Two poultry farm owners allegedly thrashed three boys of the Dalit community, suspecting them of stealing 5 kg wheat, and paraded them with shaved heads and blackened faces at a village in Uttar Pradesh, police said.

The victims’ families claimed that the duo tortured the boys as they did not report at the poultry farm for work. The incident was reported on Tuesday from Tajpur Tedia village under the limits of the Nanpara police station of Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district, officials said.

The accused allegedly thrashed the three boys, aged 12-14, shaved their heads, blackened their faces, wrote ‘thief’ on their forearms, and paraded them around the village with their hands tied.

Nanpara SHO Pradeep Singh said based on a complaint lodged by the victims’ family members, a case was registered on Wednesday against four persons — Nazim Khan, Qasim Khan, Inayat and Sanu — under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act.

Sanu, a former village head, was absconding, while the remaining three had been arrested, the SHO said.

The victims, belonging to the Dalit and OBC communities, said Nazim and Qasim, who together ran a poultry farm in the village, accused them of stealing 5 kg wheat. The duo allegedly hurled casteist slurs, tried to strangle them with electric cables before parading them around the village.

Sanu and Inayat accompanied the accused and threatened the boys, the victims alleged. The accused even filmed the act on their mobile phones, the villagers claimed.

The victim's family members, meanwhile, claimed that Nazim and Qasim tortured the three boys since they did not report at the poultry farm for work. Considering the sensitivity of the matter, adequate forces had been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure, the police said. PTI