Lucknow, UP, January 25 : A 10-year-old Dalit student of Class 3 was killed by Hindutva a group of upper caste Hindus over allegedly property dispute in Badaun district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The Class 3 student Gurjeet went missing on Sunday evening and his body was found, hours later, hanging from a tree in a village farm.
The incident occurred in Rafatpur that has a mixed population of upper castes and Dalits. The present village head is a Dalit.
As per the boy’s family, Gurjeet, the victim, was playing in the farm near the disputed part of the land when the accused men caught the boy, strangled him to death and tied him to a tree. The men fled after noticing a few villagers in the area.
A case has been lodged at the Islam Nagar police station under the Indian Penal Code's section for murder and under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. As per the police, a case has been registered against three persons - Matru Singh, Munesh Singh and Sher Singh.
According to reports, Omkar Jatav, grandfather of the victim boy, said, “The accused ‘had encroached upon our farmland for almost 15 years.” He said the accused are influential people and he had lodged multiple complaints against them in the past, but no action was taken against them by the police and the revenue department.
The police claimed the matter is being investigated and the body has been sent for postmortem.
“In the complaint, his grandfather Omkar Singh has named three persons. It has been said that the three named persons had encroached on some land. It has been stated that the boy’s father Name Singh, who had unsuccessfully contested the election for village head, was helping the people whose land was encroached on by the accused, and that the alleged murder was a result of the enmity over this land dispute,” said Verma.
The police have identified the three accused as Matru Singh, Munesh Singh and Sher Singh. “All three are absconding,” said a police officer.