Dalit youth killed in Rajasthan allegedly after row over Ambedkar poster

New Delhi, June 10

Dalit youth and member of Bhim Army who was assaulted near his home in Hanumangarh district, died in a hospital in Sriganganagar.

The victim, Vinod Bamnia (21) breathed his last at Sriganganagar hospital after succumbing to serious injuries. 

The police stated that a group of men belonging to an OBC community nearly two weeks after some of them allegedly tore posters of B R Ambedkar pasted outside his home. 

According to police, Bamnia, was assaulted on June 5 near his home in Kikraliya village of Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh district, and died in a hospital in Sriganganagar two days later.

The police said that Anil Sihag and Rakesh Sihag have been named in the FIR registered on the June 5 assault. The two are among four who have been arrested and were also named by the victim's family as assaulters. 

The FIR states that the accused allegedly shouted casteist slurs during the assault, and said: “Aaj tumhe tumhara Ambedkarvad yaad dilvayenge (We will make you remember your Ambedkarite ideology today.” The Bhim Army staged a protest against “police inaction” in the case.

According to police, Bamnia had registered complaints twice earlier this year.  In April on receiving threat calls after he objected to copies of the Hanuman Chalisa being distributed at a school, and another naming several village residents for allegedly attacking him and his family for objecting to a road block.

The initial FIR in the assault was registered by police under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 143 (punishment for unlawful Assembly) — and sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The police have now registered a case of murder after Bamnia's death under IPC section 302.