The family and relatives of a Scheduled Caste man, who was allegedly beaten to death by a few upper caste men on suspicion of theft in Haryana’s Hisar, refused to cremate the body for the second successive day on Thursday. They demanded the arrest of the accused and compensation.
Two cousins of the deceased were also beaten up in the incident and they had sustained injuries.
Wants compensation
“The families of the victims have been holding demonstration for the past two days and have refused to cremate the body. We have been demanding the arrest of the accused named in the first information report, a compensation to the victims as per the provisions in the law, Government jobs and security and arms licences for the family members. Besides, the family of the deceased should be paid a compensation of ₹50 lakh from the CM Relief Fund and the injured be given ₹25 lakh each,” said Rajat Kansal, Scheduled Caste rights’ activist in Hisar.
Vinod, 38, a resident of Hisar’s Mirkan village, and his cousins Sandeep, 26, and Bhal Singh, 35, were allegedly beaten up by around two dozen upper caste men from the same village on suspicion of stealing an inverter, battery and water pump motors. According to the FIR, the accused took the three victims on the outskirts of the village on December 14 and beat them up with rods, and punched and kicked them to “teach them a lesson”. Vinod sustained serious injuries and was declared brought dead when taken to a hospital.
Inebriated state
Mr. Kansal alleged that the accused were in an inebriated state and continued to beat up the victim even after he had died. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hisar-II, Narayan Chand said two persons, Rajpal alias Balu and Ishwar, have been arrested. Six teams have been constituted to arrest the remaining accused. “Five persons were named in the FIR and around a dozen more people named in the supplementary statement,” said Mr. Chand.
Hisar Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Soni said around ₹6 lakh was sanctioned to the victims’ family as per the provisions of the law and the remaining amount would be disbursed as prescribed in the law. Ms. Soni said she had met the victims’ families on Wednesday and their only demand was the arrest of the accused. She said the police were deployed in the village in adequate numbers and a Duty Magistrate was appointed to prevent any untoward incident.
