The municipality chairman of Sangod in Rajasthan's Kota district has been booked for allegedly abusing and beating up a Dalit sweeper, who was carting away a cow's carcass by dragging it with a tractor-trailer, police said on Sunday, 7 October.
Devkinandan Rathore, who is also a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, was booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Saturday for beating up and abusing contractual sweeper Rajkumar Valmiki, said Station House Officer (SHO) Dhanraj Meena.
Police have launched an investigation into the matter and recorded the statements of Valmiki and the eye witnesses, the SHO said, adding that no arrest had been made in connection with the incident yet.
Valmiki told police that he was taking the carcass away on Saturday afternoon by using a tractor-trailer as there was no other facility available to shift dead animals.
When he was crossing a market area, Rathore reached the spot, hurled abuses at him and manhandled him, the SHO told PTI, quoting Valmiki’s statement.
A video of the incident was uploaded on social media but police later removed it and blocked the video's source, the SHO said.
Apparently, a cow vigilante had informed Rathore about Valmiki taking the cow's carcass through the market.
(With inputs from PTI)
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