Chhattisgarh: Seven tribals thrashed for ‘stealing fish’; 10 held

Seven tribals, together with a minor boy, had been allegedly thrashed with sticks in entrance of villagers in Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur district after they had been accused of stealing fishes from a pond, following which husband of the village sarpanch and 9 others had been arrested on Monday, police mentioned.
The incident occurred on June 15 in Chera village underneath Trikunda police station limits however a case was registered solely on Monday after a criticism was lodged by one of many victims, mentioned Dhruvesh Jaiswal, Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP), Wadrafnagar.
The seven victims, all belonging to the Pando tribal group, had been accused of stealing fishes from a pond within the village on June 15 and had been forcibly taken to the farmhouse of Satyam Yadav, the husband of the village Sarpanch, the officer mentioned quoting the FIR.
“At the farmhouse, Satyam Yadav and others allegedly held a ‘jan chaupal’ during which all the seven people were brutally beaten up with sticks,” he mentioned.
Videos of the brutality went viral on numerous social media platforms.
A video clip reveals victims being purportedly made to face one after the other by holding a tree. A person is seen beating them up with sticks repeatedly on their backs. The victims had been additionally slapped and abused once they objected, the SDOP mentioned.
The accused additionally imposed a effective of Rs 35,000 on every of the victims accusing them of stealing fishes and consuming them, the SDOP mentioned, including the accused had threatened the victims with dire penalties in the event that they approached the police.
“However, one of the victims lodged a complaint in this connection following which the accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” he mentioned.
The accused had been produced in a neighborhood court docket which remanded them in judicial custody, he added.

The different accused are recognized as Jitendra Pratap Yadav, Banshidhar Yadav, Basdev Yadav, Alok Yadav, Jitendra Yadav, Jai Prakash Yadav, Jamuna Yadav, Devsai Yadav and Dinanath Yadav, he mentioned.