Dalit man beaten to death for filling water from handpump in Rajasthan, 3 held

In Rajasthan’s Soorsagar, three men have been detained by police on suspicion of killing a man who was filling a handpump with water.

On Monday evening, while Kishanlal Bheel (46) was attempting to fill water with a handpump, Shakeel, Nasir, and Bablu allegedly beat him to death.

Being members of the Dalit community, the victim’s brother, Ashok Bheel, claims that they were only permitted to gather water at night. The accused would cut their pipes if they attempted to use the pump in the morning.

Following the incident, according to Ashok, the accused allegedly stopped them from taking the victim to a hospital. He claimed that only after the police arrived on the scene was his brother transferred to a hospital.

However, the doctors declared the victim dead upon reaching the hospital.

In the meantime, the community and family of the victim gathered at a morgue to call for the arrest of all those responsible.

The three suspects have been detained by police, who are also conducting an investigation.

In a comparable occurrence, news reports detailing the cruelty the youngster had endured—named Anamika in court filings because her true identity could not be released under Indian law—had appalled Indians.

In 2014, a trial court sentenced three men who had been detained for the crime to death, and a few months later, the Delhi High Court upheld the verdicts.

However, in a dramatic turn of events on Monday, the Indian Supreme Court freed the men, ruling that there was insufficient “cogent, convincing, and unequivocal evidence” to prove their guilt.