Patna
An elderly villager from a lower caste was beaten up with slippers and then made to lick his own spit after he entered the house of a village court chief in Bihar, prompting a police inquiry.
The incident took place in Noorsarai block of Nalanad district on Thursday evening while the country was busy celebrating Diwali, the festival of light. Ironically, Nalanda happens to be the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Reports quoting police sources said the victim Mahesh Thakur who hails from barber community had entered the house of local sarpanch Surendra Yadav without knocking the door which angered the latter. A ‘sarpanch’ is an elected head of a village-level statutory institution of local self-government called village council and enjoys limited judicial power.
Subsequently, a local village court was held over the issue in the evening. The court passed an order for the intruder to be beaten with slippers, who was also told to spit on the ground and then lick it in the presence of the villagers.
Both the orders were complied with very soon. Reports said once the villagers had beat up the elderly man with slippers, he spit on the ground and licked it without offering any resistance fearing severe punishment by the village court chief.
The victim also apologised for his conduct and promised not to repeat it in future after which he was let off.
“The victim had reportedly gone to the sarpanch’s home to get tobacco, but no male members were present at that time,” the local district magistrate of Nalanda, Dr Thiagarajan SM told media.
He said the administration had taken the matter very seriously and no one would be spared. “The police have registered a case against eight persona and raids are on to arrest them,” the district magistrate added.
The state government also expressed shock over the incident and said such things would not be tolerated. “I totally condemn the act and such things won’t be tolerated. We will initiate stringent action against the culprits … the people should trust the BJP,” a senior Bihar minister Nand Kishore Yadav said.
This is the first such incident in the state after the BJP gained power following chief minister Nitish Kumar’s move to take the people’s mandate to offer it to the saffron camp after breaking alliance with the erstwhile ruling Grand Alliance comprising the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress. The Janata Dal United headed by Kumar was also part of the alliance before it walked out of it in July last.
A similar incident had taken place in October 2014 when a teenaged Dalit boy was burnt to death after his goat strayed into the paddy field of an upper caste villager in central Bihar’s Rohtas district. The accused had allegedly poured kerosene oil on the victim before setting him afire as he met a horrible end.
