Dalit man subjected to ‘faecal smearing’ after unintentional contact with man from different caste

A Dalit man in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh, has come forward with allegations of a horrifying attack on Friday, July 21.

The victim, identified as Dashrath Ahirwar, accused a man from a different caste, Ramkripal Patel, of smearing human faeces on his face and head, while also subjecting him to casteist abuses.

According to the victim’s police complaint, the deplorable incident unfolded when Ahirwar, who was engaged in construction work, accidentally touched Patel with grease. Seizing upon this trivial incident, Patel reportedly responded with extreme brutality, grabbing a mug used for bathing and smearing human faeces on Ahirwar’s body, including his face and head.

“I had some grease on my hand and by mistake that grease got smeared on Patel. After that, Patel brought human faeces lying nearby in a mug he was using for bathing and smeared it on my body including head and face. I filed the FIR the next day since I was busy with work,” Ahirwar told local media according to the Indian Express.

Subsequent to the incident, Ahirwar attempted to report the assault to his local panchayat, seeking justice for the disgraceful act. However, he faced further injustice when the panchayat imposed a fine of Rs 600 on him instead. Frustrated and determined to seek justice, Ahirwar took matters into his own hands and filed an FIR (First Information Report) with the police on the following day.

In response to the formal complaint, law enforcement authorities detained Ramkripal Patel. He now faces charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public) and 506 (criminal intimidation) along with the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. This act is specially designed to protect the marginalized communities of Scheduled Castes (Dalits) and Scheduled Tribes from discrimination and atrocities.

This distressing incident comes less than a month after another shocking video surfaced from Sidhi district in the same state. The video allegedly showed a man, identified as Pravesh Shukla, urinating on a person belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community. Following the outrage sparked by the video, Shukla was arrested and charged under the National Security Act and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Moreover, in another incident reported from Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district, a group of nine young men were accused of assaulting and urinating on the face of a tribal man during a disagreement. The authorities in that case have arrested three men and three minors, invoking the Prevention of Atrocities Act against the accused.