Progressive activists and Dalits turned up in large numbers at Gundlupet town in Chamarajanagar district on Tuesday to condemn the incident of a Dalit youth being thrashed, stripped and paraded naked.
Hundreds of protesters reached the town in a ‘padayatra’ from Sri Shaneshwaraswamy Temple, about 3 km from the town where the incident occurred, to the venue of the meeting near the old bus-stand.
At the protest, the Dalits embraced Buddhism and vowed to follow Buddhist principles. Buddhist monks administered the oath. DSS activist Harihara Anandaswamy said the ‘Dhamma Deeksha’ was intended to rise above casteism and people in many countries practising Buddhist ideology have been living peacefully in a “casteless” environment.
The gathering strongly condemned the delay in filing an FIR in the case though the alleged incident took place on June 3. The Gundlupet police registered the FIR on June 11 only after a relative of the Dalit youth filed a complaint.
The protesters submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy with a list of demands through the Deputy Commissioner of Chamarajanagar, which was received by the tahsildar of Gundlupet at the site of the protest.
Shivanna, DSS Mysuru District Coordinator, said: “We have demanded a government job and compensation of ₹25 lakh to the victim. The youth is an UPSC aspirant and it will take time for him to recover from the torture he suffered at the hands of the perpetrators.”