Police in Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district have filed a case against four men after a Dalit man alleged that he was beaten, urinated on, and subjected to caste-based abuse over a dispute related to the construction of a Gram Panchayat office. The incident reportedly took place on October 13 in Matwara village under the Bahoriband police station area.
According to officials, the altercation began when Rajkumar Chaudhary, a resident of the village, objected to the use of illegally mined gravel near his farmland for the construction of the Panchayat building. Katni Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Santosh Dehariya told The Hindu that based on Chaudhary’s complaint, a case has been registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The accused have been identified as Sarpanch Ramanuj Pandey and three others — Ram Bihari Pandey, Pawan Pandey, and Satish Pandey. “The complainant alleged that when he raised objections to the mining, he was assaulted and urinated upon. We are collecting statements from locals who witnessed the incident since it happened in public view,” ASP Dehariya said. He added that efforts were underway to trace the accused.
The ASP also confirmed that before Chaudhary’s complaint, the sarpanch had filed a separate case against him on the same day, accusing him of abuse and issuing threats. “Chaudhary first went to the district hospital for medical treatment before lodging his complaint. Both cases have been registered,” Dehariya said.
The incident has drawn comparisons to a 2023 case in Sidhi district, where a video showing a man urinating on a tribal youth had sparked nationwide outrage and led to the accused’s arrest and partial demolition of his property.
