A 24-year-old writer and a journalism student of Davangere University in Karnataka was attacked by a group of men on the night of October 21 in Davangere in Central Karnataka.
Huchangi Prasad, author of "Odala Kicchu", which talks about atrocities by upper caste-Hindus on Dalits, was allegedly abducted by a man on the pretext of being taken to the hospital where his mother was admitted after a heart-attack. Prasad has alleged that the men could be activists attached to a Hindu group.
"One person came to me and informed me that my mother had had a heart-attack. I did not have a vehicle, so decided to go with him. He later took me to a forest-like area where there were about 8 to 10 men. One of them smeared kumkum(vermilion powder) on my face and then the rest started hitting me. Even as they were hitting, they kept threatening me to stop writing badly about Hindus," he said.
A case has been filed against "unknown persons" for attempt to murder under various sections of IPC and under the SC/ST (Prevention of atrocities) Act, with the APMC yard police in Davangere.
Prasad has been getting threats for more than a year.
"Since the time my book was released by KS Bhagwan in April 2014, I had received threats from people for a month. Through my writing, I express the difficulties of caste-system, something that I have gone through myself as a Dalit. But, after the book-release my writings got more aggressive on social media,” Prasad said.