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On November 7, a 46-year-old tribal man from Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district died as he was assaulted by a group of people over drawing water from a tubewell. As per the police, the family of the deceased alleged that the accused also abused the deceased man Kishanlal Bheel (46), from Bhomiyaji ki Ghati, with casteist slurs. The incident took place on November 6 in Soorsagar.
“Both the victim and the accused were neighbours in Soorsagar locality. There is a public pipeline running through the locality, where the family of the victim had installed a pipe in one of the taps. The accused on Sunday said they wanted to install a pipe in the tap, which resulted in a confrontation between both the parties and led to the victim, Kishnaram Bheel, being assaulted,” police said, as reported by the Indian Express. They further added that, “We have arrested the three accused, Shakeel, Naseer and Bablu alias Mohammed Hatam and a case has been registered”.
Ashok, the deceased’s brother, claimed that the accused prevented the victim’s family from taking him to the hospital. The critically hurt man wasn’t taken to a hospital until after police arrived, according to the brother; there, he died from his wounds.
The police have so far arrested three people — Shakeel, Nasir, and Bablu — and booked them under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, as reported by the Siasat Daily. As stated by Gautam Dotasara, SHO of the Soorsagar Police Station, the search for other people associated to the crime is still ongoing.
Bheel’s family and community members protested and declined to perform his final rites in order to demand the rapid arrest of all suspects, financial restitution, and a government position for the next of kin.
“We have been in conversation with the demonstrators so that the postmortem can be done and the body be handed over to the family for funeral,” said Dotasara, as reported by Siasat Daily.
Ashok had also alleged that some of the locals, including the three detained, have control over the tubewell installed in the locality. They have also fitted a pump on it and do not let others to use it.
“On Sunday night, Kishanlal had gone to the tubewell for water but these people pushed him away and hurled casteist slurs at him,” Ashok alleged. Soon after he returned home, some people, including Nasir, Shakeel and Bablu, attacked our house and beat up Bheel and his son with rods and sticks, Ashok alleged.
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