An 18-year-old youth from the Dalit community was allegedly beaten to death in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district over his friendship with a girl from the upper caste community. Besides, one of the teenager’s friends was injured in the accident, which caused a huge uproar among local residents.
According to a PTI report, Ketan Lal, the deceased, had been friends with the girl for six months now.
The teenager receives a call and is then beaten
After receiving a call from her at around 11 pm on Sunday, Ketan went to her village Kolgarh with his friend Diwakar Dimri.
The report, citing the police, stated that this happened when members of the girl’s family locked them in a room and assaulted them with sticks. The next morning, Ketan’s father Dhanpal Lal received a phone call from the girl’s father asking him to pick up his son.
On reaching the spot, Dhanpal found Ketan covered in blood and rushed him to the hospital, but he could not be saved.
A case has been registered on charges of murder and Section 3 (2) (t) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, said Shweta Chaubey, Senior Superintendent of Police, Tehri Garhwal. Moreover, a person named Yashveer Singh Panwar was detained for questioning.
Read also: Greater Noida: Two more people detained for murder of Dalit boy in Rabupura
Ketan’s friend Diwakar, who was injured in the accident, was rushed to the district hospital in Burari.
Similar incidents in the past
In October 2025, a Dalit teenager in Greater Noida died after being beaten on his birthday. He was allegedly attacked by “upper-caste” men on the night of his birthday, and was allegedly facing threats from them.
Earlier in the same month, a 38-year-old Dalit man was hacked to death in UP’s Rae Bareli district. The man was lynched by people who allegedly mistook him for a “drone thief”. At the time, rumors emerged of thieves tagging homes with drones.
Most recently, in May 2026, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped by three people in Pratapgarh district of UP.
