The Bulandshahr police have arrested four men for allegedly running their SUV over a group of Dalits, who objected to their driving in the area. According to police, the incident too place on Tuesday, where a woman named Sheela Devi was killed and four others were injured in the incident. The FIR lodged in Bulandshahr's Kotwali Dehat police station said that the Dalit family was resting outside their house when a group of Thakur men drove past in their car. "There was no electricity that night and we had laid out charpai right outside the house. It's not as if they were in the middle of the road, they were pushed against the house's wall," said Bhupendra Kumar, Sheela Devi's son, to The Indian Express. Kumar explained that as he, his mother and his relatives - Puneet, Manoj and Chandni - were sitting outside, a car rushed past, barely brushing by them. “Bhaiya, gaadi dheere se chalao,” Bhupendra recalled calling out as the car drove past. “The car barely missed our feet and a few of our animals that were on the road,” said Bhupendra. The car would stop a few metres away before two upper-caste men got out and began hurling casteist slurs at Bhupendra before leaving. According to the FIR, six armed men returned in an SUV and ran over the people gathered in the area. "They drove at full-speed.the car stopped after running over my mother and then it reversed in high-speed over her again," alleged Bhupendra. While Sheela Devi died on the spot, Bhupendra and his relatives were relatively unharmed and were treated in the district hospital. On Tuesday night, police arrested Priyanshu Thakur, the car's driver, and Atul Thakur. The following day Manav Thakur and Krishna Thakur were arrested. Three suspects — Tapesh Thakur, Varun Singh and Ashu — remain absconding. The police told The Indian Express that the police are ensuring that the complainant's family is safe from threats and actions by upper-caste groups in the village. "We are conducting checks everyday and have deployed a Quick Response Team and an Inspector in the village to ensure law and order is maintained," said Assistant Superintendent of Police, Rijul. Bhupendra, however, maintained that he was scared for his and his family's lives. "I'm glad the police are keeping an eye on them.but I still fear for everyone's lives. They don't see us as humans at all, they see us as worse than animals," he said.
