Family members of deceased protest at Hisar government hospital. Express photo The family of a Dalit man — who had been beaten to death on suspicion of stealing an electric motor on December 14 — continued their protest on the premises of Hisar government hospital for the third day on Friday, refusing to cremate the body till all suspects in the case were arrested.
The man, identified as Vinod (38), a daily wager, had been beaten to death, and two of his cousins injured, in Mirkan village of Hisar district by a group of villagers on Tuesday.
A police officer told The Indian Express that the family of Vinod was seeking Rs 50 lakh as compensation, a government job for his wife, arrest of all 17 accused in the matter, Rs 25 lakh compensation for each of the injured in the incident, and government job to the injured on “DC rate”. To press for their demands, the family of the man, along with some locals, had refused to cremate Vinod’s body and have been sitting on a dharna since Wednesday.
The family alleged that a group of villagers from upper caste had thrashed Vinod, and his two cousins — Sandeep and Bhal Singh — by taking them to their field on some pretext on December 14. The family said that the men lynched Vinod on suspicion of having stolen a water motor pump from their field. A board of doctors had conducted a postmortem of the body on December 15 and the process was videographer.
According to police, initially, the family had blamed 11 suspects, naming six for the killing. Later, in a supplementary statement, the family stated 17 persons were responsible for the murder. Hisar DSP (headquarter), Ashok Kumar, told The Indian Express that four people have been arrested while efforts are on to arrest all the remaining suspects. The arrested men were identified as Inder Singh, Rajpal, Vijay and Bhagirath. Sources said more arrests were likely to be made in the case soon.
Meanwhile, officials from the administration have been trying to pursue the family of the deceased to cremate the body by holding multiple rounds of talks with them. On the demand of the family, the Investigation Officer of the case has already been changed. The administration has assured to give Rs 8.5 lakh as compensation to the family of the deceased. “The process has been initiated to release Rs 4.5 lakh of the compensation amount to the family of the deceased. But it could not be released immediately in the absence of the family’s bank account. Now, a bank account will be opened on Monday to release the compensation amount. Moreover, Rs 1 lakh for each of the injured will also be given,” said an official.
On Wednesday, senior officers, including Hisar Deputy Commissioner, Priyanka Soni, and DIG Balwan Singh Rana, visited a local hospital to meet the family of the deceased. They had also interacted with the two injured cousins of Vinod. Rana said a DSP level officer will probe the crime. An FIR has been registered with murder charges and under sections of SC/ST Act.
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