A spectacle awaited the residents on the morning of May 31 in the village square of Ansanpally in Indalwai mandal of Nizamabad district in Telangana. Members of the dominant castes in the village set up a tent and spread a mat. They then brought Karduram Nandu, a 21-year-old man, tied him up, forcefully tonsured him, and then proceeded to beat him for nearly three hours from 8:30 am.
Nandu belongs to the Madiga community categorised under Scheduled Castes. A native of the village, he is employed at a fast food centre in Nizamabad. The ostensible reason for the beating was that Nandu set fire to a haystack the previous night but his family claimed that the ire of the dominant castes towards Nandu was because he had married a girl from the Mudhiraj caste, belonging to the Other Backward Caste (OBC), a year earlier. This angered members of the Mudhiraj community.
Speaking to TNM, Nandu’s cousin, Arvind, said that Nandu had eloped and married G Ramitha, who belonged to Mudhiraj caste (OBC) a year ago, and the couple was living in Nizamabad city. When Ramitha came to visit her mother in Ansanpally this year, Nandu said he was unable to talk to her.
“The next thing we know, she was getting married to someone else,” remarked Arvind. Ramitha’s wedding took place on May 30, and Arvind alleged that Nandu was warned by her family to stay away from the festivities. That night, in a state of drunken stupor, Nandu accidentally set fire to a haystack.
Hearing about the fire, the village Sarpanch Gangavva’s husband, Bandi Bojanna, who acted as the de-facto head of the village, asked Madiga community members to confine Nandu in the village community hall. He was taken to the village square the next morning by nine villagers, including one Village Revenue Assistant (VRA) and beaten up, local police told TNM.
“The haystack fire was used as a crutch to beat up Nandu,” remarked Arvind. “On May 31, he was picked up and beaten by people who also hurled caste abuses at him. They also accused him of theft, but Nandu vehemently denied these claims,” said Arvind.
Indalwai Sub Inspector Naresh said there was more than one reason for the violence. “Aside from the inter-caste wedding and haystack fire, Nandu was also involved in petty theft and hooliganism, which angered villagers.”
Naresh said that the attackers comprised not only men from the Mudhiraj community but also from Munirkapu and Padmashali communities.
Nandu’s relatives found him in a battered condition after the assault and he was taken to a government hospital in Nizamabad. He required stitches post the injuries on his legs and forehead. Sub-Inspector Naresh claimed that despite Nandu being beaten for nearly three hours, they did not hear about the incident until Nandu was admitted to the hospital, as the village is located around 10 kms from the police station.
Nine people have been arrested in the case filed at Indalwai police station. While some Dalit rights activists assisting the family alleged that few individuals were yet to be arrested, Nizamabad Commissioner Praveen Kumar stated that all arrests had been made and the persons had been charged under the relevant sections. All the accused have been remanded in custody.
Naresh explained that the remaining eight accused who confined Nandu in the community hall through the night could not be booked under the SC/ST Atrocity Act as they also were from the Madiga caste. The police were only able to serve a notice.
The accused were booked under sections 302 (punishment for murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 109 (punishment for abetment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
There have been mounting cases of SC/ST atrocities in Telangana and Nizamabad in particular. The total number of SC/ST cases stands at 1,770 for 2021, according to the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).