Four held for 'tonsuring' Dalit youth for falling in love with upper caste woman in MP's Jabalpur

The Dalit youth has alleged that the accused, who are the relatives of the woman, tonsured, chained, garlanded him with shoes and paraded him around the village.

Four persons have been arrested in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district for allegedly tonsuring and parading a Dalit youth with a garland of shoes around his neck for daring to fall in love with an upper caste woman. According to the police, Rajkumar Dehria of village Daman Khamaria, about 40 km from the district headquarters, filed a complaint alleging that he was "tonsured, chained, garlanded with shoes and paraded around the village" by relatives of the woman whom he had fallen in love. Khamaria in his complaint alleged that a video of the entire incident was recorded by the accused and shared on several social media platforms. “The victim in his complaint told the police that he had fallen in love with an upper caste woman from the same village and had gifted her a mobile recently so that they could be in touch with each other. The accused, who are relatives of the woman, grew suspicious when they saw a new mobile phone with her and called Dehria to their house where he was thrashed and paraded. The accused also presented the videos that were being circulated on social media," said Ravi Chouhan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Jabalpur.