Bengaluru: If you’re hungry and a Dalit, don’t go to a temple to eat free prasadam, or you might get beaten to within an inch of your life! At least that’s what eight year old Santosh discovered when he went to Rudreshwara Swami Temple on Bazaar road in the city, where prasadam was being distributed.

At the sight of the boy, the angry priest bashed the little boy’s head repeatedly against a pillar in the temple, causing him to bleed. The priest suspected that the boy was a thief.

Bhaskar Prasad, a Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) leader however says that the boy was targeted because his parents were cobblers by profession and belonged to the scheduled caste. “Why would an 8-year-old boy go to a temple on a Sunday morning if it was not for prasadam.

He was a poor boy and hungry,” Bhaskar told Deccan Chronicle. Not surprisingly, police at Nelamangala town police station on Monday morning refused to register a complaint. Santosh’s father Sakabettaiah’s thumb impression was taken on a blank piece of paper! Police denied they had even entertained such a complaint.

Justice? Not by a long chalk.