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Hate crime against Dalit caste in India: teenager killed by police

Dunya News

Govind was arrested by the local police that charged him for pigeon theft

(Dunya News) – The body of a 14-year-old boy was found hanging on a tree on Friday in the outskirts of Haryana. The boy named Govind was arrested by the local police that charged him for pigeon theft.

Govind’s body was found hanging near his home with wounds all over it. This incident came just after another similar incident where two young children from the Dalit family were burnt alive when their house was set ablaze by the people of ‘superior’ caste. The boy’s family sat with his body on the road near their village in Gohana in Sonepat district for hours in protest. The family cremated him after many hours of protest.

Family of the victim said that the lives of Dalit caste do not worth a straw for those sitting on higher positions of justice and law. They said that their son was arrested on a false allegation and police have beaten him to death just because he was a Dalit. On the other side, police claim that the boy committed suicide and police is not involved in his death. The autopsy report finds strangulation as the cause of boy’s death.

The Chief Minister (CM) of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar, who is already under fire for the recent outbreak of violence and deaths of Dalit families also backed the local police and repeated the claim that the teenager committed suicide. He promised a government job for the family as compensation of the boy’s death.

Also read: Indian Minister clarifies after  dog  comment on Dalit family burning stoked controversy

Former army chief and minister of state for external affairs, Gen VK Singh on Thursday issued clarification for his dog remarks on Dalit family burning which triggered a massive controversy, reported Hindustan Times.

 

“Here it was a failure of the (local) administration. After that it comes on the (Central) government,” Singh told ANI on the sidelines of an event in Ghaziabad.

“So in everything, (to say that) someone threw a stone at a dog, the government is responsible – it is not like that,” he said in footage aired on television channels.

Asked if the government had failed in view of the killings in Sunperh, Singh said, “Don’t connect the government with it. It was a feud between two families. The matter is being inquired into.”

The Union minister of state took to twitter to clarify his stance.

He went on to saying that:

The minister also urged the Indian citizens to remain united and confront the challenges.

Early on Tuesday, over half a dozen upper caste Rajput men allegedly set ablaze the house where 31-year-old Jitender Kumar was sleeping with his wife and two children. Kumar’s nine-month-old daughter Divya and two-and-half-year-old son Vaibhav were burnt alive. Their mother, Rekha, suffered serious burn injuries and is still critical.

Haryana is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, to which Singh belongs.

The comments of Singh drew sharp criticism from the opposition, including the Congress, which demanded his immediate sacking.

Aam Aadmi Party leader added:

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha tweeted:

Priyanka Chaturvedi, another Congress spokesperson, said on Twitter:

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