By Sunil Sonker
Mussoorie, 13 May: The State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Rajendra Singh Negi, told journalists here, today, that the killing of a Dalit youth at Kot village in Nainabagh of Tehri district was unfortunate.
He said that, with some of his party members, he went to the village and spoke with the family and found that the practice of untouchability still persisted in the village. He said that, during the incident, when the deceased youth was being threatened by people of the upper caste, a middle aged man, Gabbu Shah, intervened and was also threatened by the accused, so he went to the nearby police station to file a complaint, but from that day he had gone missing. He demanded that police find Gabbu Shah and record his statement regarding the entire incident.
Negi also questioned the functioning of the police and said that according to the victim’s family, in addition to the accused already arrested, there were four more persons involved who were still roaming free. He warned the people and government that, if strict action wasn’t taken against the accused, a huge agitation would be carried out by the CPI(M) in the entire state. He said that the affected family was very poor and did not have enough money to survive on. The CPI(M) would bear the expenses on fighting the case and provide free legal service to them. Present on this occasion were Mahendra Kumar, Rajendra Purohit, Lekhraj, Sohan Singh Panwar, Satish Kumar and others.