'Tortured for not voting for BJP': MP Dalit family camps near SP office seeking justice

BHOPAL: A Dalit family has alleged torture by relatives of an MP minister for not voting in favour of the ruling BJP in the recent assembly by-elections in the state.

The members of the family, including a woman and kids, have been living under the open sky for the last few days outside the Shivpuri district SP office. They are demanding justice against the torture by the relatives of Suresh Dhakad Rathkheda, a Jyotiraditya Scindia-loyalist minister.

“We are voters of Pohri Assembly seat and were asked to press the lotus symbol for the candidate Suresh Dhakad Rathkheda in the recent by-poll, but we instead voted on the elephant symbol (BSP candidate). Since then we’ve been subjected to continuous torture by the relatives of the winning candidate and minister Suresh Dhakad Rathkheda. We’ve been physically tortured by the minister’s relatives as well as implicated in a false case by them, just for not having voted on the lotus symbol,” alleged Gyani, the elderly head of the family.  

One of the female members of the same family, Varsha who has been cooking food under the open sky with her two-month-old child in her lap outside the SP office said, “We’ll not go back to our village Jalwasa until we get justice. We’ll again be tortured by the minister’s relatives. Our efforts to get justice from local police station have gone in vain as the cops too are working under the pressure."

Confirming the development, the Shivpuri additional SP (ASP) Pravin Bhuria said: “The complainant family has met me and alleged that they were tortured by a Dhakad family in their village and also alleged having been implicated in a false case on the powerful family’s complaint. The police station in-charge has been directed to probe the family’s allegations and act accordingly.”

The Scindia-loyalist minister of state Suresh Dhakad Rathkheda was among the 22 Congress MLAs whose switch-over to the BJP had scripted the collapse of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh during March 2020.

In the recent assembly by-polls, Rathkheda had successfully retained the Pohri seat of the Shivpuri district by defeating the BSP candidate.

It’s not the first time that Dalits have allegedly come under attack from the powerful OBC men in Shivpuri district. In September 2019, two Dalit kids were allegedly beaten to death by two Yadav men for defecating in the open in the Shivpuri district of the Gwalior-Chambal region.