Five booked under atrocities Act in Gurmitkal taluk

The police have booked five people for abusing and assaulting a Dalit man and others for sitting on a resting place attached to a temple in Yampad village, Gurmitkal taluk of Yadgir district.

The Gurmitkal Police booked the five people after they assaulted Dalits for sitting on the resting place attached to the Anjaneya temple in the village on Saturday.

According to information provided by Superintendent of Police Prutwik Shankar, the five accused assaulted the complainant and one of his relatives. They also dragged the complainant’s mother and abused them with casteist remarks over the issue.

In the FIR, priest Anantappa Ashappa Peddi, Laxman Kalappa Peddi, Ramesh Sabanna Pujari, Sanna Laxman Hanumanth Peddi and Anjappa Yankappa Peddi, all residents of Yampad village, are named as accused in connection with the incident.

The 32-year-old complainant Anil Kumar Hanumanth Bevinal and his 52-year-old mother Babamma Hanumanth Bevinal went to Yampad village on Saturday to attend the tonsure ceremony (Kesha Mundan) of his relative’s baby.

While his relatives were circumambulating the Anjaneya temple in the village as part of their tradition following the tonsure ceremony, the complainant Anil Kumar sat down on the resting place attached to the temple in view of a scorching Sun.

The priest Anantappa Ashappa Peddi objected to Anil Kumar sitting there and asked him to vacate the place. When the latter questioned him, the priest started abusing him with casteist remarks. Further, the priest and others assaulted the complainant with clubs and an iron pipe causing grievous injuries, the FIR stated.

The group even dragged Babamma Hanumanth Bevinal by her hands when she tried to break the quarrel between the priest and her son.

They also assaulted Siddalingappa, who is the relative of Anil Kumar, when he went to retrieve a motorcycle from near the temple and gave him a life threat, the FIR said.

A case has been registered under Sections of 189(2), 115(2), 118(1), 74. 352. 351(3), read with 190 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita 2023 and Sections 3(1)(r)(s)(w), 3(2) (v-a) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

The police are on the look-out for the accused people.