‘Low-caste’ boys stripped and beaten over theft

NEW DELHI // Three “low-caste” teenagers were stripped, beaten and forced to march naked in public after they were accused of stealing a motorcycle in western India, video footage showed yesterday.

Angry villagers reportedly tied the children, aged between 13 and 15, to a tree before attacking them in Rajasthan state’s Chittorgarh. The footage on the NDTV news channel showed a group of men hitting the naked teenagers, from India’s lowest Dalit caste, as they crouched down to save themselves from the blows.

Police said they had registered cases against the boys and their attackers after the assault, which occurred on Saturday.

“It isn’t an upper caste versus lower caste case,” said Gaj Singh, a senior Chittorgarh police officer. “This is a case of theft and mob fury – both are wrong. We arrested six from the mob today.”

Mr Singh said the villagers involved in the assault were also from the same Kanjar tribe as the victims.

Kanjars are a socially stigmatised nomadic community found across north and central India whose members often face such discrimination that they are forced to live outside villages and towns.

Manan Chaturvedi, the head of Rajasthan’s child rights commission, promised to investigate.

“Appropriate action will be taken after proper evidence is found,” she said.

“Not only the police, but those bystanders watching and taking videos should have been active. Had they stepped in, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”

Kailash Satyarthi, the Indian child rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate, called on his Twitter followers to demand “immediate action” over what he called a “barbaric attack”.

Caste discrimination is officially illegal in India. But it still pervades many aspects of daily life, especially in the underdeveloped rural areas where more than half the population lives.

This is a case of theft and mob fury – both are wrong

Gaj Singh senior Chitorgarh police officer