My new Taheri: An 18-year-old Dalit youth was beaten to death and his friend seriously injured over his friendship with a minor girl from the upper caste community in Pratapnagar district here, police said on Monday.
The deceased, Ketan Lal, was a resident of Deval village. His injured friend, Diwakar Dimri, was taken to Burari District Hospital.
According to the complaint filed by Ketan’s father, Dhanpal Lal, the incident occurred on Sunday night in Kolgarh village.
Ketan was reportedly in a friendship with a girl from Khilgarh for the past six months.
At around 11 pm on Sunday, the girl called Ketan on his mobile phone and asked him to come to her village. Ketan went to Khilgarh with Diwakar Damri.
Police said that when they arrived, members of the girl’s family locked them in a room and assaulted them with sticks.
On Monday morning, the girl’s father called Dhanpal Lal to inform him of his son’s condition and asked him to bring him back.
Dhanpal found his son covered in blood and rushed him to a community health center in Chaund Lambgaon, where he died, police said.
Angry locals and the family initially refused to collect the body from the hospital and demanded immediate action against the assailants.
A case has been registered on charges of murder and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, said Tehri Garhwal, Senior Superintendent of Police Shweta Chaubey.
South Sudan Police added that the police arrested one of the accused, Yashveer Singh Panwar, for questioning.
