Seven people have been arrested in the Indian state of Rajasthan for allegedly forcing a Dalit man to rub his nose on a platform inside a temple.
According to media reports, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal was forced to undergo humiliation for having allegedly made derogatory remarks about Hindu deities on social media while talking about the hit Bollywood movie ‘The Kashmir Files’.
The movie focused on the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community from the region in the 1990s.
The accused have been identified as Ajay Kumar Sharma, Sanjeet Kumar, Hemant Sharma, Parvinder Kumar, Ramavtar Singh, Nitin Jangid and Dayaram.
The police said a police complaint was registered against 11 people under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Addressing the media, a Behror Police Station official, Rao Anand, said the victim, a private bank employee, had written a post on Facebook* criticising ‘The Kashmir Files’.
“In his post, Meghwal questioned whether atrocities had happened with Pandits (upper class) only and not with Dalits," he said.
The official said the Dailt man also wrote that the poor people were witnessing atrocities on a daily basis and were not safe. The post triggered critical comments.
Some of the social media users responded to Meghwal’s post by writing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ (Hail Lord Ram) and ‘Jai Shri Krishna’ (Hail Lord Krishna). Meghwal allegedly reacted to these responses with some derogatory remarks against the Gods, which further enraged people.
Although Meghwal apologised later on social media for his comments, some locals took him to a temple, forced him to rub his nose, and seek apology there.
*Facebook is banned in Russia for extremist activity.