Violence in U.P. village over FIR against religious narrators

Violence broke out in Dadarpur village under Bakewar police station limits in Etawah district on Thursday with people belonging to Yadav caste-centric social organisations protesting against the registration of an FIR against two kathavachaks (religious storytellers) a day earlier. Police fired gunshots in air to disperse the crowd, which pelted stones while trying to reach the police station.

The protesters were demanding action against those accused of assaulting the kathavachaks, Mani Yadav and his associate Sant Kumar Yadav, and confronted the police alleging that religious figures from the Yadav community were being deliberately implicated and upper caste people involved in the episode protected.

Four persons were arrested on Wednesday after a purported video of the June 22 incident, where they were seen holding the kathavachaks captive, torturing them, tonsuring their head and sprinkling urine to ‘purify’ them. However, the police registered a counter FIR against the kathavachaks on the charges of misleading people during religious programmes and concealing their caste and identity through forged identification under Section 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The issue had assumed a political turn with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accusing the BJP government of taking sides and holding it responsible for the attack on the two narrators. “It is a well-planned conspiracy. If the government fails to conduct a fair investigation and action, we will take to the streets in protest,” Mr. Yadav had said on Wednesday.