More than 30 locals booked in Dalit Bhojanmata case

Acase has been registered against 30 people in connection with the recent sacking of a Dalit cook after upper-caste students refused to eat a mid-day meal cooked by her at a secondary school in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district.

Six of those booked have been identified as Mahesh Chaurakoti, Deepa Joshi, Bablu Gehtori, Satish Chandra, Nagendra Joshi, and Shankar Dutt, while 25 others are unknown persons, Champawat Superintendent of Police, Devendra Pincha, said.

The case has been registered against them under the SC/ST Act and section 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC on the basis of a complaint lodged by Sunita Devi, the sacked ‘Bhojanmata’ (cook) of Sukhidhang Inter College, he said.

All of the accused are from Sukhidhang and surrounding villages, Pincha said. No arrest has been made so far.