Case primary details

Fact finding date

Case Incident details

Case summary

About 34 dalit families live in Sanagada village under Ranapur police station of Nayagarh district. Every year they celebrate Ganesh Puja followed by immersion ceremony of Lord Ganesh with a procession covering 7 hamlets of the village. On 6.09.2014, at about 9.00 PM, the Dalit communities were conducting immersion procession of Lord Ganesh. While the procession was passing through Kumbhar street, it was intentionally blocked by putting an auto on the middle of the road. While asked by the organizers to shift the auto to a side, the accused persons denied to shift the auto and said that the auto was out of order and could not be shifted. As a result, the procession was diverted to other direction. Meanwhile, few members of Dalit communities was passing by the Kumbhar Street, all of a sudden the members of Kumbhar communities abused them in filthy language and   by their caste name and told them “ How dare you to take procession in our street, you untouchable” and started beating them up with stick. The victims were severely got injured and became senseless. The matter was immediately informed to the police. The police sent the victim to Rananpur Hospital for treatment, however, the victims were further shifted to Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar.

Untouchability is strongly practiced in Sanagada village. In hotels, separate glasses are kept for dalits, In shops, the shopkeepers throw goods to the hands of dalit communities. Dalits are not allowed into the temple. Among dalit communities only three boys have passed matriculation and 6 persons are employed in government sector as fourth grade employee and majority of them earn the livelihood from daily labour and have no agriculture land.