While Tehri police are yet to trace the 17-year-old Dalit youth Rakesh lal missing since December 1 from Gangi village following a spat between the upper caste and Dalit community rsulting in the exodus of the scared Dalit from the village, four villagers who were staging a sit-in on the Parade Ground in Dehradun demanding the police to trace the youth have been admitted at Doon Hospital on Thursday after they were taken ill.
Those admitted at the hospital included an83-year-old woman, said Uttarakhand Samvaidhanik Sanrakshan Manch (USSM) leader Daulat Kunwar. He added that the four were taken ill due to their exposure to the cold during their sit-in the open. Meanwhile, USSM has served a memorandum to the Governor Dr K K Paul through the Raj Bhawan secretariat on the same day. When quizzed over the progress of the case of the missing youth, Garhwal Range deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Pushpak Jyoti said that they are yet to trace him, though a search is on.
Kunwar said that they were continuing with the sit-in despite some of the villagers from Gangi having fallen ill. “We would not leave Parade Ground till Rakesh lal is traced,” he said. He reiterated his outfit’s demand of the suspension of the police officers based in Ghansali who had allegedly brokered a compromise, forcing the Dalit community people to acquiesce. “A sum of Rs 40 lakh was offered in the police-brokered compromise which many of the Dalit villagers spurned.
They are demanding justice against the atrocities they were subjected to in the village in the aftermath of a trifle of the boy refusing to play drum on the occasion of a village wedding,” he said.He further said that they would apprise the Governor of what had befallen the Dalit villagers if they got an appointment.