A social media post that claimed that two women belonging to the Dalit community were buried alive in Madhya Pradesh is being shared on social media platforms.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is this true?: While this incident did take place in Madhya Pradesh, the victims and the accused in the case belonged to the same family and it wasn't a case of caste atrocity.
The two women were identified as Mamta Pandey and Asha Pandey.
How did we find out?: We did a relevant keyword search and came across multiple news reports about the incident.
We came across a report by the Indian Express from 22 July the incident happened as the two women objected to a road being built on what they said was their rented property. A dumper truck dumped gravel on the two.
The victims, Mamta and Asha were buried in gravel up to their necks and waists, respectively, when locals came to their aid. One of the women needed medical assistance after losing consciousness.
The truck driver was identified as Vipin Pandey who was later arrested. The police are also looking for two others who are related to the incident. All of them are relatives of the victims.
According to the police's comments to the Indian Express, the two women received medical assistance and were discharged from the hospital.
Similarly, India Today also reported on the issue and noted that it invited criticisms from opposition parties to the Madhya Pradesh government.
However, none of the reports cited their caste identity.
Police response: Giving a byte to news agency ANI, Rewa's Superintendent of Police, Vivek Singh said, "It is a family land dispute between two sides. One side wanted to make a road and they were spreading pebbles for it."
He added that the two women, Mamta Pandey and Asha Pandey came under the pebbles when they were being dumped on the disputed land.
A case of attempted murder has been filed in accordance with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita's (BNS) Section 110. One of the three accused has been taken into custody. The victims were treated and discharged from the hospital.
The section 110 of BNS is for culpable homicide, emphasising actions carried out with the knowledge or purpose that it would result in death. It does not qualify as murder.
BNS's section 110 does not deal with caste-based atrocities.
The Quint has reached out to the SP of Rewa for his inputs and the story will be updated once we receive a response.
Conclusion: Social media users have falsely claimed that two women of the Dalit community were buried alive in MP.
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