Fri 17 July 2020:
Two officials have been removed in India after a Dalit couple attempted suicide by consuming pesticide while being evicted from government land.
The couple consumed pesticide after police beat them and destroyed their crops, causing outrage over the latest case of police brutality against marginalised sections of society.
An online video showing half a dozen police officers dragging and beating the couple with sticks to evict them from government-owned land in central Madhya Pradesh state has been viewed more than one million times since it was posted on Tuesday.
A video shows the police hitting a Dalit man with batons as his wife and others try to save him.The couple said they had leased the land for farming and would die if they were evicted.
– Ram Kumar Ahirwar, 38, and Savitri Devi, 35 – along with their children, who were seen sobbing as their parents fell unconscious.
“… When our standing crop has been destroyed, we don’t have other option, but to kill ourselves,” Devi was quoted as saying by the ndtv.com news website.
The couple consumed pesticide moments after the eviction and were rushed to hospital, S Vishwanath, head of the local administration, told a news conference late on Wednesday, hours before he and the police chief were removed from their posts.
1/ These policemen must get the same treatment from the people, watch that lady! ? $#!
Consider this happening to your Parents?
Only the poor is going to suffer.
A Dalit couple in Guna, Madhya Pradesh tried to commit suicide in front of the police administration. #Guna pic.twitter.com/MdRpbixrRs
— ? Vikesh Tiwari ? (@tvicky002) July 16, 2020
The couple are believed to be in a stable condition at a government hospital in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. But the police have registered a case against them for trying to obstruct public servants from the discharge of their duty.
“To force a couple to attempt suicide by damaging their crops … is most cruel and shameful,” Kumari Mayawati, a Dalit political leader, said on Twitter.
“Nationwide condemnation of the incident is natural. Government should take strict action.”
Government and senior police officials were not immediately available for comment.
The eviction was part of a drive to stop encroachment on land and the area the couple was farming had been allotted for the construction of a college, a policeman told Reuters. He declined to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media.
Six police officers were suspended on Thursday and the state government has ordered an investigation into the incident.
The main opposition party in the state, the Congress, blamed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the police brutality. “[Chief Minister] Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s shameless display of arrogance,” the party tweeted. “His police force brutally beat up a farmer couple and tore the woman’s clothes. The children are screaming. The end of this blind, deaf and dumb government is near.”
The case comes weeks after a father-son duo died in police custody in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. At least five policemen have been arrested over the deaths that caused a public outcry.
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