Five booked for stopping Dalit from praying at UP temple

The woman, 35-year-old Jai Devi, said the incident took place when she went to attend a religious discourse in a temple near her house. “Last Thursday, I went to the temple with a thali containing flowers and other puja items. Following instructions from the priest, everyone kept their thalis at a corner on the temple campus. When one’s turn was coming, the person picked up his thalis and entered the temple,” she added.

“When my turn was about to come, some persons picked up my thali and started shouting… I took my thali from them but they started making casteist remarks against me. One of them snatched the thali from my hand and threw it on the ground. I felt humiliated and returned home,” she added.

Jai Devi then informed her husband Babloo, a labourer. Following this, the couple went to Rasoolabad police station and filed a complaint.

“I paint the temple almost every year, but still they stop my wife from entering,” said Babloo, who has four children with Jai Devi. The eldest one is in Class XI.

The couple, however, said that Jai Devi had visited the temple earlier as well but faced no problems. This was the first time she was stopped, they alleged.

Rasoolabad police SHO Sunil Kumar Singh said that after the complaint was lodged last Thursday, they conducted a probe and lodged a case against five persons named by Jai Devi. “During inquiry, I spoke to some local residents and also the temple priest. Their statements showed that Jai Devi’s allegations were true,” said Sub-Inspector Ramji Dubey.

Following this, Rohit Kumar Pandey, his father Ambika Prasad Pandey and cousins Narendra and Ajay (all residents of Nar Khurd) as well as Rohit’s relative Raj Shekhar Awasthi from the neighbouring Narsinghpur village were booked under sections 147 (rioting), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

When contacted, village head Usha Awasthi’s son Kapil said: “Those named in the FIR indulged in such an act because they claim that the temple has been built on land owned by their ancestors and they decide the norms there.”

“None of us were present at the temple when the incident took place. Those present at the temple have told us that they abused the woman, snatched her thali and forced her to leave,” he added.