Four Dalit men suspected of theft, hung upside down in Maharashtra

Four Dalit men were allegedly hanged upside down from a tree and beaten up with sticks by six persons on suspicion of stealing a goat and some pigeons at a village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, police said on Sunday.
A video of the incident that took place in Haregaon village of Shrirampur taluka surfaced on social media, following which the police on Saturday arrested one person in connection with the attack, while five others are absconding, an official from Ahmednagar police said.
On August 25, a group of six persons from the village allegedly took four Dalit men, all in their 20s, from their homes, he said.
The victims were hanged upside down from a tree and beaten up with sticks over suspicion of stealing a goat and some pigeons, he said. The accused have been identified as Yuvraj Galande, Manoj Bodake, Pappu Parkhe, Deepak Gaikwad, Durgesh Vaidya and Raju Borage, the official said.
One of the accused allegedly shot a video of the attack, which later surfaced on social media, he said. The injured men were later taken to a nearby hospital, the official said, adding that one of the victims Shubham Magade lodged a complaint with the police.
A case under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 364 (kidnapping) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has been registered, he said.

Uttar Pradesh reported the greatest number of crimes against Dalits — 13,146 cases — which amounts to almost a quarter of the total such incidents in 2021. Following it were Rajasthan (7,524), Madhya Pradesh (7,214), and Bihar (5,842). Out of these states, UP, Rajasthan, and MP saw a higher number of cases than in 2020, but Bihar witnessed a dip.