A viral video showing a man being mercilessly beaten with a belt has been traced to Rajasthan's Nagaur district.
BOOM was able to confirm that the video shows a Dalit man assaulted by four men belonging to the Jat community and one Dalit, on suspicion of theft. The incident occurred on the afternoon of November 3, 2019.
Satish Meena, Station House Officer (SHO) Nawa police, told BOOM that the victim is a local and that arrests were made under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities ) Act and the Indian Penal Code. He said the victim was beaten on suspicion of theft.
"Everything has been done, arrests were made under relevant sections of the SC/ST Act and the IPC," Meena said.
The victim has been identified as Sukharam Meghwal, belonging to the Meghwal community, according to the FIR accessed by BOOM.
Meanwhile, four of the accused Mukesh Jat, Ramlal, Rajkumar, and Rudharam belong to the Jat community. The fifth accused Gopiram belongs to a Scheduled Caste. In the clip, only one of the men can be seen beating the victim while the others remain silent bystanders.
BOOM was able to track down the video through a reply to the tweet sharing the clip.
We reached out to Ravi Kumar Meghwal, national president of Dr Ambedkar Student Front of India (DAFSI) - the organisation mentioned in the letter above.
Ravi Kumar Meghwal said the police were slow to make arrests and only following protests by the community and a letter to the chief minister, were arrests made. He also said that the organisation was considering moving the Jodhpur High Court against the police.
BOOM has not been independently able to verify the same.
Meghwal also sent us an undated video of the victim's statement in which Sukharam Meghwal alleges that he had gone to the village to look for his cow which had strayed when three men assaulted him. The men accused him of stealing a cable. He also alleged that his wallet and locket were stolen by the accused.