Burnt alive: SIT to probe death of Dalit farmer in Madhya Pradesh

Jatav was allegedly burnt alive by the four men at around 9 am on Thursday before his helpless wife, when he tried to stop them from ploughing the agricultural plot allotted to his family.
Image for representational purpose
Image for representational purpose

BHOPAL: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the district police was constituted on Friday to probe the death of a 64-year-old Dalit farmer who was allegedly burnt alive by four Yadav men in a village on outskirts of Bhopal.

Additional Superintendent of Police Sanjay Sahu will head the SIT, and the team will be under continuous monitoring of Deputy Inspector General, Bhopal, Dharmendra Chaudhary and Superintendent of Police, Bhopal North, Hemant Chauhan.

All four men, including alleged BJP worker Tiran Singh Yadav, his son Prakash, and relatives Sanju and Balbir, who are accused of burning Kishorilal Jatav alive in Parseria-Ghatkhedi village, were arrested within 12 hours of the incident.

They have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 447 (criminal trespass) and 34 (acts done by several persons in common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the police said.

Jatav was allegedly burnt alive by the four men at around 9 am on Thursday before his helpless wife, when he tried to stop them from ploughing the agricultural plot allotted to his family.

“All four accused were arrested and the SIT constituted to probe the entire case will now investigate all issues related to the episode,” said SP, Bhopal North, Hemant Chauhan.

Police were deployed in large numbers in the village to prevent any confrontation between Dalits and Yadavs. Police will probe all possible angles in the case, including the remote possibility of the incident not being a murder, but instead a suicide.

“My father often went to the Berasia tehsil for getting the demarcation (of land) done, but the patwari didn’t help our cause under pressure from the Yadav family, owing to which we could not cultivate anything on our own land,” said Kishorilal’s daughter Kishan Bai.

As per the 2016 NCRB data, Madhya Pradesh was fourth in the list of atrocities against Dalits reported in the country.

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