MP: Stone-pelting at Dalit man's marriage procession over DJ music; 6 held

Rajgarh: A group of people allegedly threw stones on the marriage procession of a Dalit man here in Madhya Pradesh following a dispute over DJ music being played during the celebration, police said on Wednesday. Three persons were injured in the incident which took place late Tuesday night in Jirapur town, located 38 km from the Rajgarh district headquarters, and later six people were arrested, they said. The groom’s marriage procession was passing outside a mosque at around 11 pm when some people of a community objected to DJ music being played during the celebration, Jirapur police station in-charge Prabhat Gaud said.

Following the objection, the marriage party members stopped the music for some time. But, when the procession reached near a temple, they again started playing the music. Some people who had earlier objected to it allegedly started pelting stones on the procession from behind, the official said. Following a complaint filed by the bride’s father, the police arrested six people and registered a case against them and some others under Indian Penal Code Sections 294 (obscene act), 336 (endangering human life) and 506 (criminal intimidation), and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of atrocities) Act, the official said. The CCTV footage of the area is being examined, he said. As per the FIR, the complainant alleged that the accused objected to music being played when the marriage procession reached near the temple on Tuesday night. The accused started abusing them, saying the DJ music was disturbing their sleep and later started hurling stones, in which three people were injured, the FIR said.

When people from the bride’s side also started gathering there, the accused threatened them with dire consequences if the DJ music is played again in their locality and their sleep gets disturbed, the police said quoting the complaint. The FIR was registered against Samar Lala, Farhan Khan, Junaid Khan, Sohail Khan, Sabir Khan, Anas Kasai, Dagga Khan and others, the police added.