A 46-year-old Dalit woman hailing from Jharkhand’s Dhanbad was allegedly beaten with a broom, and casteist slurs were hurled at her by a shopkeeper for refusing to clean the front of his shop.
According to the FIR, which was accessed by the FoEJ Media, Manju Devi Valmiki, a sanitation worker from Valmiki Colony in Jharia, was doing her private job’s sanitation work when the incident occurred on Monday.
In her statement, she alleged that Sunil Kesari (55), a shopkeeper, asked her to clean the front of his shop without payment. On refusal, the accused abused Manju Devi using caste slurs and launched a physical assault.
“My mother is a private sanitation worker who used to clean the shop adjacent to Sunil’s. When Sunil asked her to clean his shop, she refused because he had not paid her. Following this, Sunil took her broom, assaulted her, and hurled caste-based slurs at her,” Devi’s son, Raja Kumar Valmiki, said talking to FoEJ Media.
Valmiki told FoEJ Media that Kesari not only used “abusive words against our community” but also grabbed his mother’s hand and struck her on the head with the handle of a broom. Manju Devi has sustained injuries on her head.
“When I objected and asked him not to abuse me, he became aggressive and used filthy language. He threatened me and said that he would get the shop vacated. He then pushed me, caught hold of me, and misbehaved, due to which I fell down and sustained injuries. He also tore my clothes and used very objectionable words,” Manju Devi stated in her FIR.
The footage of the incident that made rounds on social media shows the man assaulting Devi and using slurs. The man, reportedly Sunil Kesari, could be seen using a broom to continuously hit Devi on her head.
.Manju Devi alleged that the bypassers separated them, but Kesari continued to threaten her.
“People present at the spot intervened and separated us. Even after that, he continued to threaten me and said that he would not let me work there and would get me forcibly removed,” she stated.
Police said an FIR has been registered under relevant sections, including the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and the accused will be arrested soon.
