Dalit Teen beaten to death in Tehri Garhwal over inter-caste friendship

An 18-year-old Dalit youth, Ketan Lal, was allegedly beaten to death in Pratapnagar, Uttarakhand, over an inter-caste friendship. His friend was injured. Police have filed a murder case under the SC/ST Act and detained one suspect

New Tehri: An 18-year-old Dalit youth was allegedly beaten to death and his friend severely injured over his friendship with a minor girl from an upper caste community in the Pratapnagar block here, police have said. The deceased, Ketan Lal, was a resident of Deval village.

His injured friend, Diwakar Dimri, was admitted to the district hospital in Baurari.

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According to a complaint lodged by the Ketan’s father, Dhanpal Lal, the incident occurred on Sunday night in Kholgarh village. Ketan had reportedly been in a friendship with a girl from Kholgarh for the past six months.

On Sunday at around 11 pm, the girl called Ketan on his mobile phone and asked him to come to her village. Ketan went to Kholgarh with Diwakar Dimri.

When they both arrived, members of the girl’s family locked them both in a room and assaulted them with sticks, the police said on Monday. On Monday morning, the girl’s father called Dhanpal Lal to inform him about his son’s condition and asked him to take him back.

Dhanpal found his son covered in blood and rushed him to a community health centre in Chaund Lambgaon where he succumbed, the police said.

Irate locals and the family initially refused to claim the body from the hospital and demanded immediate action against the assaulters.

Tehri Garhwal Senior Superintendent of Police Shweta Choubey said a case under the charge of murder and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was filed.

The police had detained for questioning one of the accused, Yashveer Singh Panwar, the SSP added.