Dalit woman’s body taken off funeral pyre after upper caste group objects

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday demanded a high level inquiry and strict action against the culprits who forced the family members belonging to Dalit community to remove the dead body of a woman from the funeral pyre in a village located in Agra district.

In a series of tweets, Mayawati said, the people belonging to upper caste community forced the Dalit community family to remove the dead body off the funeral pyre, claiming that cremation ground was used by the upper caste people. “The incident is shameful and it should be condemned. To check the repeat of such an abhorrent incident, the state government should order a high level inquiry and take strict action against the culprits,” she said.

The matter relates to village Kakarpura where Pooja (25) had died on July 19th. Her husband complained that they were not allowed to cremate the body by upper caste members.

“My wife Pooja died after prolonged illness on July 19 and was taken for cremation on July 20. There was no objection by those in the village, but half a dozen members of the upper caste community came and objected to cremation by us as we are Gujrati ‘Nat’,” said Rahul Bajania, the husband of the deceased.

“We had the pyre prepared but were forced to take the dead body away to village Nagla Lal Dass, about four kilometers away, where the cremation was undertaken finally,” said Rahul, who claimed that police had reached the village but were helpless in front of upper caste members.

Superintendent of Police (West) Ravi Kumar said that no complaint was lodged in this regard. Later, the incident was highlighted by the local people on social media

“We have not received any complaint but the Circle Officer for Achhnera circle has been assigned the task to find out more about the matter. Necessary action will follow on his finding,” said SP West.

(With inputs from Hemendra Chaturvedi)