A 26-year-old Dalit man was brutally attacked by a mob wearing Shiva mala in Yalal of Telangana’s Vikarabad district on Tuesday, January 31. The victim, Metli Naresh, a resident of Devanoor village in Yalal mandal, has been hospitalised. The police have registered a case, but no one has been arrested for the attack so far. A video of the attack showed a large mob, with most of them wearing the Shiva mala, attacking Naresh and another man with stones, brooms, chappals, and even pots. The video also showed three police officers at the scene attempting to stop and protect the two men, but the enraged mob ignored them and continued to attack.
The incident was said to have been triggered by the decision of the Dalits in Devanoor village, to install a statue of BR Ambedkar in the village centre. The right-wing group Hindu Vahini was said to be upset about this decision and was planning to install a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji nearby.
While the police claimed that the attack was due to personal enmity, Abhinav Buram, a leader of the anti-caste organisation Kula Nirmulana Porata Samithi, alleged that it was a deliberate attack and that Dalits in the village had been subjected to violence and discrimination in the past. “The village has a history of atrocities. Ten years ago, the Dalits refused to continue the traditional practice of sacrificing cows to the local deity because they were scared of being targeted by cow vigilantes. As they refused to continue the village tradition, they were stopped from playing the drums at any village ceremonies. This took away their source of income,” he said. According to Yalal Sub-Inspector A Aravind, the victim Naresh belonged to the Scheduled Caste community and worked as an electrician.
The official told TNM that the attack was connected to an incident that occurred on the evening of January 30. Naresh and his friend Srinivas, were arguing when the main accused Narender tried to intervene to stop them from fighting. Naresh is said to have pushed Narender aside and asked him not to interfere as he was wearing the Shiva mala. Upset by this, Narender, who belonged to the Backward Class (BC), shared the incident with others on WhatsApp groups. Narender also lodged a police complaint against Naresh for hurting religious sentiments on Tuesday. Several devotees held a protest demanding Naresh’s arrest.
On January 31 evening, when Naresh was near Yalal police station on work, he was attacked by a mob of more than 100 people. “The mob also beat another man because they mistook him to be Naresh. They were provoked by WhatsApp messages and were unaware of what happened the previous day. But we managed to protect them a little,” Aravind said. According to the FIR, the mob also hurled casteist slurs at Naresh. Nine people have been named in the FIR and have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Atrocities Act, 2015.
On Thursday, anti-caste organisations submitted a petition to the Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) and held a sit-in protest, demanding that the men who attacked the Dalit youth be detained immediately. They warned the administration that they would hold a large dharna in front of the Superintendent of Police office if no action was taken.
Dalit activists said that the situation had been tense in the Vikarabad area, after Bairi Naresh, the state president of Bharata Nasthika Samajam (Atheist Society of India) was accused of making derogatory statements against Ayyappa deity during a public meeting in Vikarabad in December 2022. He was booked and arrested for hurting religious sentiments.