KAMAREDDY: Kamareddy district police on Tuesday registered cases under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against Jaldipally village Sarpanch K Ravinder and ward member K Raju for allegedly affecting a social boycott on 15 families in the village belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
The village is located in Lingampet mandal. According to police, the villagers had met at the gram panchayat office on June 6 to discuss arrangements for the upcoming Bonalu festival and documents pertaining to MNREGS payments.
At the meeting, Sarpanch Ravinder, ward member Raju got into an argument with P Sailu, a man from one of the SC community families. Ravinder and Raju had objected to Sailu sitting on a chair at the office. He was told he was not allowed to sit on the chair.
Over the next couple of days, the SC community in the village discussed the incident and what they could do next.
Meanwhile, the water connection to the SC colony in the village was found to be disconnected. The families believed this was done by the sarpanch, and thus impose a social boycott on them.
On Monday evening, Sailu and several others went to Lingampet police station to lodge a complaint against the sarpanch, alleging discrimination.
Later, Lingampally Sub Inspector (SI) Sukhender Reddy visited the SC colony in Jaldipally to conduct an enquiry. He later reported his findings to senior police officials.
On Tuesday, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anyonya, Yellareddy DSP E Sattenna and Circle Inspector (CI) Sudhakar came to the village and interacted with the families in the SC colony and other villagers. They recorded statements from people on both sides of the argument.
Later, they restored the water supply to the families. They told media persons cases had been registered against the sarpanch and ward member and that DSP Sattenna would oversee the investigation.
K Ramulu to visit Jaldipally
Member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, K Ramulu, on Tuesday evening said he would visit Jaldipally and nearby villages on Wednesday.
He said he would speak to villagers and get to the bottom of the incident.