A Dalit couple who allegedly attempted suicide on seeing a JCB machine crush their standing crop was brutally assaulted by the police in Jagatpur Chak area of Guna district on Tuesday. The alleged police brutality didn't end there, as the couple’s kin who tried to save them too were assaulted by cops. The police then went on to abuse and pushed away the helpless kids of the couple. The Madhya Pradesh government had allotted the 20 bighas public land for construction of a Model Science College two years back, but the land had been encroached upon by the Dalit family, which claims to have been farming on it for a long time.
A revenue department team escorted by cops went to get the land vacated and pave the way for building a boundary wall there on Tuesday.But the Dalit family resisted the government team’s bid. On seeing their entire standing crop being crushed by a JCB machine, the Dalit couple Ram Kumar Ahirwar and Savitri Devi went on to consume pesticide.Following this, the cops assaulted them and forcibly dragged them into an ambulance.
The couple’s kin, including Ram Kumar’s mother and brother, who tried to save them, too were brutally assaulted by the on-duty cops. Further, when the Dalit couple’s kids tried to rush to save their parents, the weeping kids were verbally abused and pushed away by the cops. The couple is Rs 3 lakh in debt.The cops responded by brutally assaulting them; some of the visuals show Savitri Devi clinging to her husband while uniformed police officers rain blows with lathis. The opposition Congress state spokesperson Narendra Saluja condemned the incident.