Dalit woman stripped and beaten to death- seven arrested

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 
Visakhapatnam

A Dalit woman was alleged beaten and stripped by a group of people for obstructing the ground-level work for laying the foundation stone for houses in a disputed land in the Jerriothulapalem area under Pendurthi police station limits.

Though the incident took place on December 18, it came to light only on Wednesday. Following a complaint by the victim, seven out of eight persons accused of committing the crime had been arrested. The woman was taken to KGH. DCP (Law and Order, South Zone) T.Ravi Kumar said that the government had recently allocate 0.7 acres in Survey Number 77 in the Jerriothulapalem area to 22 beneficiaries under the NTR Housing Scheme with each of them getting 3.3 cents. The victim’s siter and a few other Dalit families are said to be cultivating the land which they claim had been assigned to them by the government more than two decades ago.

The adjacent land was later allotted to AP Beverages Corporation for setting up a bottling company. The government has taken over the land from the Dalits for not taking up any construction work and allotted it to a group of people said to be close to a few of TDP leaders. On Monday, a few people reached the area to lay the foundation stone. The victim and a few others resisted their over alleging that their land was being grabbed by TDP leaders resulting in a clash between the two groups.

The DCP said that cases were registered against seven persons including local TDP leaders including M.Appala Raju and his wife Parvathi under the SC/ST Atrocities Act and Sections 447 and 323 of the IPC.