A youth allegedly gave sedative-laced food to family members of a 20-year-girl and raped the Dalit girl at Bhambewa village of the district last night.

Five members of the family, including the victim, have been shifted to the hospital. The police has registered a case but no arrest has been made so far. Reports said the victim told the police that the youth identified as Naseeb came to her house last night and mixed some sedatives in vegetable which she had prepared. While the girl and her family members, including her mother and her two sisters, who consumed the food fell unconscious. With no male member of the family around, the accused took the girl to a secluded spot and raped her.

It is revealed that the victim, in semi-conscious state, narrated everything to her father, who reached the house late at night. The girl and other members of the family were rushed to a hospital, where they had been undergoing treatment. Though a medical examination of the rape victim had been conducted, the report was still awaited, said a doctor. The victim told the police this morning that the boy was her neighbour.

Zee News

Dalit students prevented from offering prayers to Lord Ganesha in Odisha

http://zeenews.india.com/news/odisha/dalit-students-prevented-from-offering-prayers-to-lord-ganesha-in-odisha_875334.html

Kendrapara: A group of Dalit students were prevented from offering prayers to Lord Ganesha and beaten up allegedly by some upper caste people in a government-run school, causing tension in Chakoda-Gogua village of the district, police said on Monday.

The incident occurred when the dalit students went to offer prayers to the deity like other upper caste students in the Chakoda-Gogua High School, but they were stopped from doing so and allegedly beaten up by some upper caste villagers, triggering caste conflict in the area, they said.

"Police had rushed to the village to stop escalation of tension in the area.

Legal action is being initiated against those who ill-treated the dalit students on caste ground. No FIR has been lodged in this connection as yet," Superintendent of Police Rabi Narayan Behera said.

The village, with a population of about 1,000 including 300 hailing from dalit community, had never witnessed caste-related problems in the past.

"Teachers and guardians of some upper caste students committed offence under various acts for for which they should be immediately arrested," dalit leader and the president of Ambedkar-Lohia Vichar Manch, Rabindra Nath Sethi said.

The dalit students are deeply hurt by the caste-based discrimination, Sethi said adding promotion of caste bias in government-run schools was in bad taste.

"Some teachers and guardians of upper caste students prevented us from worshipping the deity in the school and hurled abusive languages when we tried to offer prayer with other school children. We were scolded and manhandled," alleged a class X student of the school.

"Some upper caste villagers beat up dalit students. They also instigated the teachers not to allow dalit students to offer anything to the deity in the school," dalit leader Ashol Mallick claimed.

The school authorities were not available for comment.

PTI

The Times Of India

HC directs listing of dalit writer's petition

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/HC-directs-listing-of-dalit-writers-petition/articleshow/22448179.cms

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad High Court on Monday directed to list in the next cause the writ petition filed by noted dalit writer Kanwal Bhartiwho was recently arrested for his comments on facebook regarding suspended IAS officer Durga Sakthi Nagpal. In the writ petition, Bharti has alleged that he was arrested at the instance of state cabinet minister Azam Khan, who has been made a party along with other state authorities in the writ petition.

The above order was passed by a division bench comprising Justice Surendra Singh and Justice Rakesh Srivastava.

The petitioner through his counsel senior advocate Ravi Kiran Jain has alleged that his computer has been seized by the police and has not been released yet. He has said that seizing the computer of a writer is a serious violation of his fundamental rights, as so many important write ups, written by him, are saved in it.

Bharti has alleged that the aim behind his arrest was only to terrorize him. He further says that by arresting him he was deprived of his fundamental right enshrined under Article 19 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees right of free expression to citizens.

In his writ petition, Kanwal Bharti has requested the court to direct payment of compensation to him for his illegal arrest. He has also requested the court to quash the FIR lodged against him on August 5, 2013 at police station Civil Lines, Rampur. In this FIR, it was alleged that by his comments there was chances of disturbance of communal harmony.

In the writ petition, Bharti had also requested the court to direct the investigation officer not to further investigate the case against the petitioner registered under 153A and 295A of Indian Penal Code at police station Civil Lines, Rampur district.

According to the petition, the petitioner wanted to cover up the issue, which he had raised over the recent demolition of a 200 years' old Madarsa in Rampur.

Bharti alleged that the FIR against him was lodged by one Fashat Ali Khan alias Shanu at the instance of state cabinet minister Azam Khan, although Bharti claimed that he had nothing personal against Azam Khan.

As per writ petition, the state had claimed that it had suspended Durga Shakti Nagpal over the demolition of a wall at NOIDA, saying that it could have let the communal tension. In this backdrop of the situation, Bharti had questioned in his post at facebook as to why did the state allowed this demolition of 200 years old Madarsa in Rampur ? Why nobody was suspended here? Why could not communal violence had taken place here ?

India TV

Security stepped up for Sekaran's memorial day

http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/security-stepped-up-for-sekaran-s-memorial-day-27659.html

Chennai: Stepping up security ahead of Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran's memorial day at Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram District in view of violence witnessed during the last two years, police has issued strict guidelines for those participating in the event on Wednesday.

Police have banned entry of hired vehicles into Ramanathapuram district and four check-posts would be set up along the border points where a tehsildar, motor inspector, inspector, sub-inspector and constables would carry out checks.

Tirunelveli District SP Bijendra Bidari in a release advised those proceeding to Paramakudi to desist from hiring vehicles in view of the ban.

Arrangements have been made to videograph movements of vehicles through the check posts.

Meanwhile, Tirunelveli Police Commissioner in a statement said those travelling on own vehicles to Ramanathapuram, where prohibitory orders are in place needed to register with district police and to get an ID card.

"Those with own vehicles should not display any banner or a poster or pictures of any leader. They are prohibited from using any public announcing system. Carrying dangerous weapons are also prohibited in the vehicle," a police statement said.

The above guidelines would apply for those travelling to Ramanathapuram for Immanuel Sekaran anniversary on September 11 as well as for Thevar Guru Poojai on October 30, it added.

During Immanuel Sekaran's memorial day in 2011, violence broke out and six dalits were killed in police firing. Last year, some people were injured in violence at two places in the region.

The Hindu

Playing with fire

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/playing-with-fire/article5110770.ece

Uttar Pradesh has always been vulnerable to communal and caste tensions because of the sizeable presence in the State of three critical demographic segments — Muslims, Dalits and caste Hindus. It takes but a small incident to start a skirmish, which, depending on the extent of political support, either sputters to a swift end or turns into a full-blown conflagration. Prima facie , the mob frenzy in Muzaffarnagar, which has already claimed over two dozen lives and left hundreds homeless, appears to be a textbook case of engineered violence. The pattern is familiar. Ground reports suggest that the current disturbance has its roots in an August 27 Jat-Muslim clash in Kawal village over a spate of killings involving both communities. This fuse slowly gathered momentum thanks to police inaction, political manipulation and a poisonous video calculatedly pressed into circulation by suspected Hindutva elements. Predictably enough, large-scale violence erupted. And equally predictably, the video turned out to be fake: what was circulated as the actual clip of the August 27 killings was most probably footage shot in Pakistan.

But this is exactly how vested interests, and sometimes even mainstream parties, operate. A hate-filled VCD had formed part of the BJP's official campaign material ahead of the 2007 Assembly election. The disc, which portrayed Muslims as nation-breakers, and implored Hindus to vote the BJP or find themselves sporting beards and wearing burqas, was withdrawn following an FIR registered by the Election Commission. That election was saved by the ECI's hawk-like watch over communal and caste miscreants, leading to the formation of the first majority government in 16 years by the Bahujan Samaj Party. It is not without significance that peace prevailed until the next election five years later. For all of Mayawati's faults she ran an efficient administration that acted at the first sign of communal trouble. In the February 2012 Assembly election, fresh hope came in the form of Akhilesh Yadav who seemed sincere enough with his promise to practise principled politics. The promise stands betrayed as can be seen from the Samajwadi Party government's admission to at least 27 communal incidents since March 2012. The SP is the mirror opposite of the BJP and its larger parivar. For every cynical action of one, there tends to be an equal and opposite reaction from the other, with the competition getting fiercer closer to an election, as is obviously the case now. As 2014 nears, rival political efforts to fuel and play on the insecurity and fears of Muslims and Hindus are likely to be intensified. The good sense of Uttar Pradesh's people will be severely tested in the months ahead.

News Monitor by Girish Pant

.Arun Khote
On behalf of
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(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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