Palwal: Three arrested for beating up Dalit family for allegedly ignoring PM Modi’s lights-out call

Three people, identified as Ankit, Sachin, and Pawan have been arrested, and produced in court, from where they have been remanded to judicial custody. (Representational Image)

Three people have been arrested by Palwal police for attacking a Dalit family in the district with bricks, stones, iron rods, and sticks during the ‘diya jalao’ event Sunday evening. The complainant in the case has alleged that the accused barged into the family’s home, enraged they had turned on their lights, despite the fact that it was well past 9.09 pm or the nine minutes that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had fixed for the event.

In his complaint to police, Dhanpal, a resident of Pingore village in Palwal, has stated that, at 9.30 pm on Sunday, he was at home with his family of seven when “some antisocial elements” barged into their home and used caste slurs against them before threatening to turn off all the lights of their house “even though the Prime Minister had given the time of 9 pm to 9 minutes past 9 pm to turn off the light which we followed”.

“Despite following this, at around 9.30 pm, some antisocial elements of the Gujjar community…forced their way into my house, used caste slurs, and when we opposed this, they beat us with sticks, bricks, stones, and iron rods, broke items, and looted our home,” alleged Dhanpal.

“In this, the glass of my doors and windows broke, and my cars (Baleno and Bolero) were heavily damaged,” he said, adding the men also threatened them with “more serious consequences” if they initiated any legal action in the matter.

“An FIR was registered regarding the matter on Tuesday, under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 34 (common intention), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code,” said Inspector Jitendra Kumar, Station House Officer (SHO) of the Sadar Palwal police station.

“Three people, identified as Ankit, Sachin, and Pawan have been arrested, and produced in court, from where they have been remanded to judicial custody. The other accused are still absconding and investigations are being conducted to nab them,” he said.