On Thursday (June 9), an ‘activist’ named Suraj Kumar Bauddh had courted controversy after he falsely claimed that a Dalit man was beaten in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, owing to caste discrimination.
In a tweet, he had claimed, “In Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, one youth belonging to the Scheduled Caste community was stripped and tied to a tree. He was beaten mercilessly with a shoe. My heart pains me after seeing the atrocities committed in the name of caste. Shameful”
The activist had also shared a video where a man was seen tied to a tree and thrashed with a sandal. At the time of writing, the disturbing tweet had 856 retweets and over 1600 likes.
What is the Truth?
Following social media outrage, the Andhra Pradesh police took to Twitter to issue a clarification. Contrary to the claims of the Suraj Kumar Bauddh, the incident was not a case of caste discrimination. In fact, both the accused and the victim belonged to the same community.
“A video of a person tied to a tree & being beaten in Vishakhapatnam is viral on the social media. On enquiry, it is revealed that two persons (both belong to SC caste) quarreled with each other over an issue of missing mobile phone,” the cops informed.
As such, a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged at Pendurthy Police Station and the accused was apprehended on June 8, 2022.
A case was registered by @vizagcitypolice in Pendurthy PS vide FIR No.373/2022 on 08.06.2022 and accused was arrested immediately on same day. A detailed report is being sent to @NCSC_GoI @thevijaysampla (2/2)
— Andhra Pradesh Police (@APPOLICE100) June 10, 2022
The attempt by Suraj Kumar Bauddh to twist a case of personal enmity and theft into a crime, influenced by the caste of the victim, was thus debunked by the Andhra Pradesh police.
Suraj Kumar Bauddh extends support to the anti-Brahmin activist
Suraj, who is also the Founder of Mission Ambedkar, was recently seen batting for anti-Brahmin activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan whose talk was recently cancelled by Google.
In a tweet, he had claimed, “The casteism faced by Thenmozhi Soundararajan has exposed the diversity of Google. A forum which does not dare to talk on caste, diversity is just an evasion there. #CasteAtGoogle”
Opindia had earlier reported in detail how Google decided to not go forward with the scheduled talk of Thenmozhi, fearing that it might create ‘division and rancour’ in the workplace.
The Executive Director of Equality Labs alleged that a disinformation campaign was led against her by Google employees to prevent her from speaking on caste bias. She claimed that the employees labelled her ‘Hinduphobic’ and ‘anti-Hindu’ to bolster their allegations.
After being de-platformed by the tech giant for causing divisions at the workplace, Thenmozhi Soundararajan compared herself to an ‘abuse survivor’ who is not being allowed to speak on the #MeToo movement. Reportedly, the anti-Brahmin activist wanted to talk to 60 odd Google employees about ‘caste equity’ in Newsrooms.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan alleged that 7 Google employees wrote to the management against allowing the anti-Brahmin activist to conduct her talk. She alleged that they used ‘inflammatory language’ to claim they would be harmed by her discussion.
