Five booked for assaulting, humiliating Dalit boy in MP; making video of ordeal viral

Five persons, including three minors, were booked on Saturday for allegedly assaulting a 17-year-old Dalit boy in Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh and forcing him to perform humiliating acts, a police official said.

He was made to squat and hold his earlobes in a way that is called ‘murgha banana’ in local parlance and is handed down as a punishment, and was also made to caw like a crow, the official said.

“The accused shot a video of the victim’s ordeal and uploaded clips on social media. After coming across these clips, we identified the victim, who is a Dalit. He told us the accused, who were known to him, took him to a desolate place and made him undergo this ordeal on August 25 over an old dispute,” Kotwali police station inspector Raghavendra Tiwari told PTI.

The accused were charged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and efforts were on to nab them, the official added.