In a village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, four Dalit men were allegedly beaten with sticks and hanged upside down from a tree on suspicion of stealing a goat and some pigeons.
A video of the incident surfaced on social media, following which the police on Saturday arrested one person in connection with the attack, while five others are absconding, an Ahmednagar police official said. A shutdown was observed in Haregaon village in Shrirampur taluka on Sunday in protest against the incident.
Opposition Congress has termed the incident as a blot on humanity and the fallout of hate being spread by BJP. On August 25, a group of six persons from the village allegedly went to the homes of four Dalit men, all in their 20s, and forced them to accompany them, the official said.
They were hanged upside down from a tree and beaten up with sticks over the suspicion of stealing a goat and some pigeons, he said. The accused have been identified as Yuvraj Galande, Manoj Bodake, Pappu Parkhe, Deepak Gaikwad, Durgesh Vaidya and Raju Borage, the official said.