Tension prevailed in Etah after the private part of a 32-year-old Dalit man was allegedly slashed by upper caste men for “objecting” to felling a tree on his land.
The victim, Satendra Kumar, said that his four-month pregnant wife was also “hit with an axe and badly beaten up”. The complainant, still traumatised, claimed that “more than half of his private part was deeply cut”.
An FIR has been registered against two accused – Vikram Singh Thakur and Satyendra alias Bhuray Thakur – under the relevant sections of the Indian penal Code and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Saturday, two days after the incident.
Shambunath Singh, Station House Officer of Kotwali Dehat, said, “The two accused men are on the run and efforts are on to nab them.”
The victim, a father of two, said, “The men belonging to an upper caste were cutting the babool tree on my farm land last Thursday. When I objected, they abused me and hurled casteist slurs. Vikram and Bhuray then caught hold of me and brutally thrashed me. Vikram took out a knife and tried to chop off my private part. Doctors had to put 12 stitches on the wound.”
“Hearing my screams for help, my four-month-pregnant wife rushed there. She was attacked by Bhuray with an axe, resulting in an injury on her left wrist. The accused followed us as we tried to run away from them. They barged into my house and brutally beat my wife while I was bleeding and pleading for mercy. Before leaving, they threatened to kill us if we called the police,” Kumar said.
Kumar’s wife, Pooja, said, “We approached the police but our complaint was not registered. Thereafter, we contacted a lawyer to get our FIR registered. Now, we are not staying in the village. The kin of the accused are threatening us to withdraw the complaint. I am unsure about the condition of my (would-be) child.”
Deputy Superintendent of Police Vikrant Dwivedi said, “The allegation that his private part was slashed with a knife is wrong. There was a rupture in the foreskin caused during the scuffle. Medical examination has established that there was no detachment of the penis. The entire matter is being investigated.”