‘Won’t let you study’: Dalit student alleges casteist abuse, assault by classmates in Ghaziabad

Police registered the FIR under sections of 3(2)(va) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, culpable homicide, intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, and aggravated criminal intimidation. (File Photo)

On October 7, when Mahesh Kumar, 45, woke up in the middle of night, he noticed his son, a Class 11 student, sitting outside the house in Ghaziabad. The teenager wore an anxious look and was sleepless hours after he was allegedly harassed at his school.

Kumar, who belongs to a Dalit community, works as a mason. His son studies in a Ghaziabad-based school. On October 6, his son, he alleged, returned home with multiple injuries after his classmates thrashed him and hurled casetist abuses at him. “They have been harassing my son for over a month, so I filed a police complaint on October 8.”

On Sunday, the Ghaziabad Police registered an FIR against several students of the school and others under sections of 3(2)(va) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, culpable homicide, intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, and aggravated criminal intimidation. A senior police officer said, “We have registered an FIR and are investigating the allegations.”

Kumar told The Indian Express, “His classmates have been making unnecessary casteist comments about my child in school like ‘Do you want to be Ambedkar?’ and ‘We won’t let you study’. That day, when the school was about to get over, they once again abused him with filthy language.They also called five-seven friends and thrashed my son with kicks and punches and beat him with a belt,” he alleged.

According to Kumar, his son fell unconscious after the alleged assault. “Ever since the assault happened, he has gone to school just once. That day, his teacher called me to pick him up after two hours since he complained of pain. Even before this incident, he was irregular to school and I used to scold him. But he says that his classmates harassed him incessantly,” Kumar alleged.