RAJAHMUNDRY: A group of men bashed up two Dalits, accusing them of stealing a cow and killing it for meat at Sudhapalem in Bheemunipalem of Uppalaguptam mandal in East Godavari on Monday night, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned against such attacks on Dalits, at a public meeting in Hyderabad. However, the attackers were not gau rakshaks, but men who suspected theft of their cows.
According to police, Buragayala Aravind hailing from Amalapuram called up two Dalits, Mokati Eilsha and his younger brother Venkateswara Rao, on Monday and asked them to take away his cow that suffered an electric shock and died. The two went to Amalapuram and brought the dead cow to a cemetery at Sudhapalem in an auto rickshaw. They started cutting it for meat to be sold in the late hours. Then, three men who were searching for their missing cows, noticed this and unleashed the attack on the Dalits on the wrong premise that the killed cow was their cow.
The three men — Varrinki Narayana Rao, Rajulapudi Gangadhara Rao and Bhupati Raju Venkatapati Raju — were raising one cow each at Samanasa village in Amalapuram rural mandal. These cows used to feed on the crops of farmer Veeri Srinivasa Rao. On Monday, the farmer got angry over this and he tied the cows in the fields. As the cows failed to return home by evening, the three men started a search at night. As they moved around, they noticed action in the cemetery “of a cow being cut for meat” in Sudhapalem.
Presuming that one of their missing cows was killed and was being cut, the three along with some others tied up Mokati Elisha to a pole and beat him up severely. They also beat up his younger brother Venkateswara Rao and the auto rickshaw driver. The three men later lodged a complaint at the local police station, saying that their cows went missing and one of them was killed and cut for meat.
Police detained Elisha, his brother and the auto driver. As the news spread about 'killing' of a cow by Dalits and their detention in the local police station, a crowd and MRPS activists arrived at the police station and mounted pressure on the police to shift them to the area hospital at Amalapuram for treatment of injuries they suffered in the beating. Later, Mokati Elisha filed a complaint with the police, saying Yerugandi Abbulu and others attacked him and his brother. The accused are absconding. Amalapuram DSP Ankaiah, handling the case, said, "We have booked a case based on the complaint from Mokati Elisha."
