Dalit woman assaulted for using tube well

Kendrapada, Mar 26 (UNI) In a shocking incident, a dalit woman was allegedly beaten up by some upper caste villagers while taking water from a village tubewell.

The incident took place in a far flung coastal village of Iribisa under Japa Gram Panchayat, about 70 km from here yesterday.

According to sources, about ten Dalit families of Iribisa village had been depending on a tubewell in the Harijan Sahi of the village since long which became non-operational last month.

On last Tuesday one Lochan Sethi(25), the wife of Sunil Kumar Sethi, dared to take water from another tubewell, used by the upper caste people in the village.

Seeing the dalit woman taking water from the tubewell, some irate upper caste people allegedly assaulted her and threw the bucket.

The dalit woman filed an FIR against one Sanjaya Kumar Jena and others in Erasama police station today.

Police had registered a case against the accused under various Sections of the IPC and Section 3 of SC/ST Act.

Senior police officials had rushed to village to arrest the culprits but they had managed to flee from the village.

UNI XC-DP SJC/src1816