Dalit woman, son assaulted during panchayat in UP

Gonda (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) A Dalit woman and her minor son were allegedly assaulted and subjected to casteist slurs by the representative of the gram pradhan and his companion in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district, police said.

The accused have been identified as village head's representative Santosh Yadav and his companion Sant Kumar Yadav.

Gonda Superintendent of Police (SP), Akash Tomar, said the woman identified as Jai Shree and her son were allegedly harassed in full public view and locked out of their house in Kallapur Saraiharra village after the woman's daughter had a court marriage on August 16 with a man from the same village, who also belonged to the same caste.

Tomar added the couple got married with the consent of their respective families.

However, the girl's grandmother was not happy with the marriage and on her initiative, a panchayat was called, the SP said.

The SP added that Santosh and Sant Kumar publicly harassed the woman and her son during the panchayat and an alleged video of the incident recorded by a bystander later surfaced on the internet.

He said a case under the Indian Penal Code sections 323 for voluntarily causing hurt and 504 for insulting as well as sections of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered against the two at Nawabganj police station.

Tomar added the woman had returned to her house after the lock was removed by local police officials. The Inspector-in-charge of the area has been directed to provide security to the victim's family, he said.

Source: IANS