Hyderabad: Dalit activists demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao dismiss TRS leaders in Kothur village who alleg-edly led a mob that abused and attacked a dalit woman and her family. Several family members were injured. Dalit organisations went to the village on a fact-finding mission condemned the atrocities and requested officials to take precautionary measures in view of a grave threat to the family.
At the heart of the matter is a land dispute; a few years back, the village panchayat office-bearers forcefully grabbed the family’s land. Ramchandr-aiah owned nearly half an acre of ancestral land. He was convinced by local leaders to donate land for a temple in the name of village development. He agreed, and transferred the land to them. Later they encroached on more land, to which he objected.
Ramchandraiah approa-ched village elders for justice, and their verdict came in his favour. The land was transferred back.
Nursing a grudge, miscreants beat him black and blue, and while undergoing treatment he succumbed. He was survived by Jayamma and their three children: two girls aged 16 and 12, and a six-year-old boy. She did not lodge a police complaint fearing the same fate as her husband, and raised her children on her own doing manual labour, eventually marrying off her daughters.
Seven years after his death, Jayamma needed money for marrying off her second daughter. She sold 136 yards of land in 2015.
“Recently the buyer started construction of a new house,” Jayamma’s son-in-law K. Ashok told Deccan Chronicle.
“On February 18, some miscreants including local TRS leaders opposed the move and attacked the family and the buyer. A mob of about 100 attacked both families in which 10 were injured. During the melee some hurled caste abuse against Jayamma and her family.”
P. Shankar of the Dalit Bahujan Front, part of the fact-finding committee told Deccan Chronicle: “It is a shame that the atrocity happened in the Chief Minister’s constitu-ency. Atrocities against Dalits have become a common phenomenon.”
The fact-finding team demanded the suspension of local TRS leaders involved in the attack.
Mulugu police have booked a case of SC/ST atrocity.
“We have arrested six involved in the attack,” sub-inspector B.Sreeshylam said.
