A group of Dalit women were denied entry into a temple in Bulandshahr's Rakheda village by two allegedly upper caste men.
One of the women being stopped from entering the temple recorded a video of the incident that took place on 25 October and shared it on social media.
In the video, the two men can be seen turning the women away despite several pleadings. The men are heard saying that the women cannot offer prayers at the temple since it belonged to the “Thakurs”.
In protest, the women who belonged to the Valmiki community can be heard asking, "Are we not humans? Do we not have hearts?"
SP City Atul Kumar Shrivastava said that the police have taken cognisance of the video and have started their investigation after a group of people from the Valmiki community met him with the complaint.
He said, "Strict action will be taken against those found guilty."
Vijender Singh Valmiki, one of the men who went to the local administration with the complaint, said, “We had been offering prayers at that temple from a long time but recently some upper caste men have stopped allowing our entry.”
Threatening to convert from Hinduism, Vijender said, "It is shameful that even after so many years of independence, India is facing discrimination over caste."
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