Maharashtra horror: Dalit widow beaten on road for seeking return of Rs 2K

Satara (Maharashtra): In yet another incident, a Dalit widow was allegedly thrashed by at least four persons after she demanded repayment of a Rs 2,000 advance paid to a man for undelivered fodder, as videos of the beating went viral on social media network here on Thursday.

The shocker took place on August 26 in Panven village where the victim, Shahida Mahadev Tupe was beaten up in public and evoked strong reactions from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) President Prakash Ambedkar.

According to local eyewitnesses, the prime accused, one Devdas Naraley and his associates allegedly abused, punched, kicked and pushed around the middle-aged woman till she fell on the road, crying for help.

With no help from the onlookers, some of whom were clicking pictures or videos of the assault, the four assailants fled the spot.

Later, the widow's son lodged a police complaint after which the police swung into action and nabbed the remaining accused Santosh Shinde, Shantaram Narale, and Janappa Shinde by late Monday, two days after the incident.

Ambedkar said that the video of the physical abuse "is so disturbing that I am struggling to find words in my vocabulary to illustrate this caste atrocity in words. Absolutely cruel and inhuman".

"It does not stop, does it? A helpless Dalit widow was brutally beaten by a group of men in Satara. Her crime? She demanded her own money back which she paid for undelivered goods – fodder," said Ambedkar on a social media post.

The Mhaswad Police, probing the outrageous incident, have booked all the accused under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The VBA activists protested on Wednesday in the village and later, submitted a memorandum to the district authorities demanding police security and justice for the Tupe family.

This is the second major attack on Dalits, coming close on the heels of the August 25 incident in Haregaon, Ahmednagar when four VBA activists were stripped, urinated upon, spat, hung upside down from a tree and beaten up.

VBA chief Ambedkar will take out a protest rally in Ahmednagar to condemn that and the fresh incident reported from Satara.