Dalit volunteer alleges harassment by Sarpanch and his father

Vishakhapatanam: A Dalit village volunteer of Ummavaram under Chodavaram mandal has alleged that the local Sarpanch and his associates were harassing her in the name of her caste and recently beat up her parents for not showing respect to him as he walked past their house in the SC Colony.

Vanaja submitted a memorandum to the Visakhapatnam SP Kriushna Rao on Monday, seeking action against Sarpanch Thota Sanjeev, his father Thota Nagaraju and five others.

She also told the SP that a complaint was lodged against them on June 21 with the Chodavaram police. Her co-worker, Sai, has been arrested for supporting the Sarpanch in the harassment case.

The Dalit volunteer told the SP that Nookaraju was passing by the SC Colony last month when her sister-in-law was washing clothes. He abused her for not standing up when he passed by. When her parents objected to his uses of abusive words, he beat them up.

Later, another volunteer of the village secretariat Sai took her phone and gave it to the sarpanch, who recorded all the personal conversations she had with her male friends. He later called for a village meeting and played the audio of her conversation in the public address system. When the parents questioned the sarpanch for tarnishing her character in the public, he beat up her parents.

She said after lodging the complaint, she continued to be harassed by the sarpanch and his followers.

Seeking severe action against the sarpanch and his followers, TD SC cell district president Pucha Vijay Kumar said harassment of Dalits was going on unabated in the rural areas of the district and the YSRC government is not taking any action against the culprits.

He said local MLA Karanam Dharmasri was protecting the accused.

Vijay Kumar said when Vanaja and her family members went to the MLA and informed him about the incident, they found the sarpanch and his father were sitting in his house.