Alleging that they were being harassed by village strongmen for failing to vote for the BJP in the recently concluded bypolls, a dalit family in Shivpuri of Madhya Pradesh camped for several hours in front of the office of district superintendent of police demanding justice.
The Jatav family from village Jhalwasa in Pohri of Shivpuri alleged that FIRs in fake cases were registered against them at the behest of Ramkishan and Kunwar Singh Dhakad, who they claimed were related to minister of state for PWD Suresh Dhakad Rathkheda.
The family inclusive of women and children arrived in Shivpuri town on Monday afternoon and camped before the SP office, cooking their food there and spending night in the open in cold conditions, local sources said.
Harvir Singh Jatav of the family alleged before media persons that the strongmen in their neighbourhood were pressuring them to vote for 'phool' (BJP), while they were clear that they wanted to vote for 'Haathi' (BSP). “When we remained adamant not to vote for BJP they got fake FIRs registered against us and even the police started harassing us,” Jatav said. He also said that while the minister was not directly involved, the Dhakad family in their village was related to him (minister).
A #Dalit family in Shivpuri of #MadhyaPradesh alleges that they are being harassed by village strongmen for not voting for #BJP in the recently held bypolls. https://t.co/y8ZkdKwSax pic.twitter.com/EDsPG9YjOn
— THE WEEK (@TheWeekLive) December 1, 2020
Minister Suresh Rathkheda contested and won the bypolls from Pohri seat on BJP ticket last month after resigning from the Congress earlier in March. BSP candidate Kailash Kushwaha was the runner up here, polling more votes than the Congress candidate.
Superintendent of police Rajesh Chandel, while speaking to The WEEK, said that the matter was of a dispute between the two families and the Jatav family had allegedly caused some damage to the property of the Dhakad family after which FIR was registered against them. “The Jatav family is claiming that the allegations against them are false and the Dhakad family is harassing them. Their complaint has also been registered and we are looking into the matter. The family was here only a few hours and left for their village yesterday evening itself,” the SP said.
Local sources, however, said that the family spent its night before the SP office and left only on Tuesday morning.
A month ago, just before the bypolls voting, a similar dharna was staged by a dalit family after a dumper that the head of the family operated was allegedly seized by the police even though all documents were in place. The owner of the dumper with his wife and two children had staged a dharna before the Shivpuri SP office and went away only after the police released his dumper, sources said.
