Upper caste Hindus assaulted a Dalit man for trying to go inside the temple in the Doda town of Chenab valley, following which Jammu Kashmir Police has filed an F.I.R. against the accused.
As per reports reaching The Kashmiriyat, Bittu Ram, a resident of Hiller Ramban entered a temple in the Ghala Dhar area of Doda on 18 June 2023 after which he was kidnapped and brutally assaulted by upper caste men.
“I was walking back from the temple when five to six men from the upper caste kidnapped me from a street and started abusing me after taking me inside a house. They took off my clothes and beat me on my private parts for merely trying to enter the temple,” Bittu explaining his ordeal said.
He said that the upper caste men shouted him down when he said he had gone to the temple to say his prayers. They six were in video calling someone who identified me initially. After which they constantly repeated, “Humare mandir mai ghusse ga… Himmat kaise hui tum logoun ki” (How dare you lower caste enter the temple. The temples belong to us upper castes).
They allegedly beat Bittu for over three hours. “During the beating, I fell unconscious after I heard one of them telling them to throw my body into the nearby stream. They used knives and other sharp objects to cut my arm,” Bittu said.
“I constantly asked for water, but they kept abusing me and denied me water stating that I was from the lower caste. They kept beating me with iron rods,” said Bittu.
After this they picked Bittu up assuming he was dead and threw his body on a roadside. Some locals upon spotting him took him to the nearby hospital, Bittu said. The 28-year-old was treated at the hospital for over ten days.
His lawyer spoke to the press saying that it was unfortunate that despite having complained to the local Police several times no FIR was filed for over ten days. “This looks like the initiation of Hindu Rashtra in Jammu Kashmir. The victim has been assaulted and his arm had been cut. He sustained over 10 stitches to his arm,” said Rajat, his lawyer.
He said that it was unfortunate that section 325 of IPC had been invoked in the F.I.R. which is the section for causing grievous hurt. “Why was section 307 not invoked? Did the accused not try to kill Bittu?” he asked.
Rajat said that the Hindu Rashtra the right-wing demands does not include lower castes. “It is highly unfortunate that the right-wing Hindu forces demand unification of Hindus against other religions, but they still do not allow the lower caste Hindus to enter the temples,” he said.