Dominant caste men attacked a dalit family for not giving them access to graze their cows on the land owned by the dalit family. The men attacked with pipes, axes and this is not the first time they were committing such brutalities. These men enjoy impunity due to the continued complicity of the local police. Dalit assertion & resistence of any kind – even when it is about rightful access to their own land – is met with fierce attack. In this case, the victims are also facing charges filed by the perpetrators.
The survivor says,”When we were working on our farm at our village Kantala, the accused (Three men) came to our farm with their cattle to graze them on out land. When we denied them access to our farm, they left with anger. They came back to us with axes and pipes and started attacking us with the weapons. This is third time the accused have attacked us. The police have not taken any concrete action earlier but gave a month of police protection. There were two more physical assaults on us by the same men earlier, and the police never registered out complaints. The accused are defiant individuals and frequently carry out deadly attack on us”.
The land given to Dalits under Land Ceiling was given to landless Dalits. But in many of these landholdings the dominant caste refuse to leave and commit many such atrocities.
