The Nizamabad Commissioner Ch Praveen Kumar said that the rest eight accused, involved in the thrashing of victim Nandhu Karduram, will also be arrested as the investigation proceeds.
The victim, Nandhu Karduram. (Twitter)
A 21-year-old daily wager of Ansanpally village of Indalwai Mandal in Nizamabad district was made to go through a horrific experience on Wednesday, 31 May.
According to details of the incident that have only now surfaced, he was confined overnight, tied up and beaten for hours the next morning before his head was forcefully tonsured.
In the FIR lodged on 5 June by the victim Nandhu Karduram — which was accessed by South First — at the Indalwai mandal police station, he stated that the initial reason for the assault was his accidentally setting a haystack to fire the previous night.
Nandhu belongs to Madiga community, classified as a Schedule Caste (SC).
However, he added that his year-old marriage with a girl from the Mudhiraj community — an Other Backward Caste (OBC) — was the major reason behind the thrashing as it drew ire of the dominant castes in the village.
The police finally made arrests in the case on Monday, 12 June.
According to Nandhu, who tied the knot with Gurrapu Ramitha, his in-laws asked his wife to visit them during the Sankranthi festival,
“But after a few days, she stopped calling me. Her phone was also unreachable. I started believing that she is getting schooled by her parents against me,” Nandhu claimed.
Nandhu, who returned to Ansanpally on 29 May to visit his ill mother, was informed by his friends the next day that Ramitha’s parents were getting her remarried to a person of their own caste. They also warned him to be careful and not try to visit her.
“The same evening I consumed alcohol and went to the back of my house for a smoke. Accidentally I threw the cigarette into the haystack, which caught fire. I later apologised to the owner Danam Srinu,” Nandhu stated.
Hearing about the fire, two men — Gurrapu Rajendhar and Vasu Padmashali (both from Mudhiraj community and named as prime accused in the FIR) — took him to the village panchayat office and asked the Madiga community members to confine him there for the night.
Under the watch of his community members, he was taken to the village panchayat the next morning where he was beaten by nine villagers, including one Village Revenue Assistant (VRA), as per the FIR.
After this, Nandhu’s head was forcefully tonsured, which he claimed was witnessed by his mother-in-law Mailaram Balavva.
The FIR noted that there were injuries on Nandhu’s head, hands, chest and legs. He was admitted to a local government hospital by his relatives.
The Indalwai police station on 5 June registered a case against 17 accused, including Nandhu’s wife Ramitha’s parents. Nine of them have been arrested and remanded for 14 days custody.
The case was registered under IPC Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 342 (wrongful confinement), 109 (punishment for abetment), 494 and the relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
As per the Indalwai cops, the assailants were members of the Mudhiraj, Padmashali, and Munirkapu communities.
However, the cops claimed that the violence took place due to more than one reason.
“In the past, Nandu also involved in petty theft and hooliganism due to which the villagers were against him. So we believe all this also led to the attack,” Indalwai police station Sub-Inspector Barukunta Naresh told South First.
When asked why the rest eight accused, who detained Nandu in the village panchayat office, have not been put behind bars, Naresh said, “As they belong from the same Madiga community, they could not be booked under the SC/ST Atrocity Act. So far we have only served a notice to them and the investigation is going on.”
Nizamabad Commissioner Ch Praveen Kumar told South First that the remaining eight accused will also be arrested as the investigation proceeds.
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