A video showing a man being mercilessly beaten up by a group of Muslim men has gone viral on social media. The Twitter user who shared the video claimed that a Dalit man was beaten up by men from the Muslim community in Amethi.

Following the video, the Amethi police, yesterday, released a sound byte in which an officer in-charge confirmed the incident.

He is heard saying that in the incident which transpired on June 21, 2019, in Jayas district in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, a Dalit man named, Shashank Padam Bhusan Sonkar was mercilessly beaten up by people of ‘another community’. Shashank’s brother and his wife also suffered injuries in the brawl. It is being claimed that the victim was opposing molestation of his sister when the people of the Muslim community attacked him and started beating him up.

The police confirm that on the basis of the victim’s wife’s complaint a case against the miscreants had been registered under IPC sections, 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and the SC/ST Act. Two arrests have also been made so far, confirmed inspector Tiloi in the sound byte.

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He further confirms that the police are investigating the case and perpetrators would be punished.

Many such incidents of atrocities and discrimination against Dalits by men from the Muslims community have previously also come to the fore. Yesterday we reported how the Dalit community had approached the police in Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh against caste-based discrimination by Muslim barbers in the area.

Last month, it was reported how a Muslim mob had entered a temple in Ghasauli village, Meerut, and beat up a group of Dalit men who had put up loudspeakers in the temple for playing devotional songs. The Muslim community had objected to the loudspeaker on temple premises, which is near a mosque after the men from Dalit community put them up.

Later, the mob attacked the temple and beat up the Dalit men with lathis and sticks. They also reportedly attacked them with a sharp object and even started pelting stones. Over half a dozen people inside the temple were injured and the communal tensions escalated.

In February also, reports had emerged wherein a minor conflict between some people belonging to the Dalit and the Muslim communities escalated into communal violence in Durveshpur village of Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh.