Three persons have been detained in Samastipur district in Bihar in connection with a case in which a Dalit youth was thrashed and forced to lick spit because he was having an affair with a Muslim girl. The police, however, have not invoked sections of the SC/ST Act against the accused.
Firoz was one of the accused. Aside from that, the police claim to have identified two other suspects based on surveillance video. Their names are Anil and Vinod Paswan. Alauddin, the Maulana who appears in the viral video forcing the youth to spit and then lick it 5 times with his tongue, is still at large.
Chowkidar Ram Bharos Paswan, the complainant in this incident, has accused 50 to 60 unknown people in his complaint.
The incident reportedly happened on Wednesday, October 19. Locals in Bihar’s Samastipur district thrashed the Dalit youth after they found he had an affair with a Muslim girl. In the video that has gone viral, a Maulana forced the youth to spit and then lick it 5 times to humiliate him over his relationship with a Muslim girl.
OpIndia spoke with Vibhutipur Sandeep Kumar, the station’s in-charge, about the incident. He informed us that the case had been filed under sections 348 and 323 of the IPC. According to the station in charge, the accused, Alauddin, has not yet been apprehended, but his son, Firoz, has been apprehended.
According to SHO Sandeep, the arrest and police action were based on evidence collected and ongoing research.
Bihar refrains from invoking SC/ST Act after Maulana humiliates Dalit youth
According to the information, Section 348 of the IPC follows an assault on a person by holding a person prisoner and forcing him to confess to a crime. Section 323 of the IPC, on the other hand, is applied after a routine assault. In these circumstances, the maximum penalty is three years in prison.
On the issue of not including sections of the SC/ST Act in the case, Sandeep Kumar stated that the decisions are taken by the higher authorities and they only follow instructions. According to the SHO, no police press release has been issued regarding the three arrests made thus far, which is the responsibility of senior officials, he added.
Notably, Ajay Kumar, the Communist Party’s Vibhutipur MLA, said earlier that there were members from Raju Paswan’s community among the gathering and that whatever decision was made was made by the Gram Panchayat.
The issue could be resolved by talking to the youth and the girl: The village head
OpIndia spoke with Shravan Paswan, the head of Mahesari village in the Ujiyarpur Police Station area, where the victim resides. Expressing shock at the incident, Shravan said he could not understand why Raju was thrashed so mercilessly.
He opined that the situation could have been settled amicably by talking to the youth and the girl. The village head told us that the victim, Raju, had been made to sit in the village panchayat forcefully and that they had rescued him once they reached there.
Shravan further stated that neither the victim nor the accused wanted any type of police action in the case.
Recalling the incident, Shravan said that when he noticed the hostile atmosphere in the hamlet, his primary concern was Raju’s safety. He wanted to bring him back safely at whatever cost, said Sharvan, adding that following the incident, some officers from the Vibhutipur police station had visited their village for questioning.
According to the village head, Raju’s family members persuaded him to stay in the house out of fear, which is why when the police officers came to the village they could not interrogate him. Shravan dismissed the report of Raju fleeing from the village and maintained that he is at home.
Don’t have a husband, who will fight our case: Victim Raju Paswan’s mother
Manju Devi, the mother of victim Raju Paswan, spoke with OpIndia. Raju’s mother stated that her son and the girl attended the same coaching class and that on the day of the incident, the girl had requested Raju to drop her home. She denied that her son was in a romantic relationship with the girl. She said they were only friends. Manju Devi stated that Raju is still a minor. She added that his father had passed away.
Manju Devi described the inhuman conduct committed against her child as unlawful but stated that she does not want to pursue legal action since she has no one in her family to defend the case, among other things. Raju, according to his mother Manju Devi, has not gone anywhere and is still at home.
According to media reports, the Dalit youth is a resident of Mahesari village in the Ujiyarpur Police Station area. He was having an affair with a Muslim girl from Chakhabib village, which is under the jurisdiction of the Vibhutipur police station. On the day of the incident, he had taken his bike to her village to drop her off. Eventually, the crowd apprehended him. The youngster is said to have been severely thrashed before being made to spit and lick 5 times on the orders of one Maulana.
