Accused of goat theft, 2 Dalit youths in Odisha tonsured, assaulted, garlanded with slippers

The police in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district registered two first information reports in connection with an incident in which two Dalit youths accused of goat theft were allegedly assaulted, tonsured and garlanded with slippers, reported The Indian Express on Saturday.

The incident reportedly took place on December 27 in the jurisdiction of Biridi police station. Odisha Congress leader Amiya Pandav brough attention to the case by sharing a video of the alleged assault on X on Saturday morning.

The Indian Express reported that the two men were allegedly chased by locals while they were transporting two goats in an auto rickshaw. They were later rescued by the police, charged with theft, arrested and sent to judicial custody.

They were eventually released on bail.

Seven persons have been booked for the alleged assault under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, along with sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

In a complaint filed on January 1, the father of one of the victims claimed that his son and his friend were returning from Simadala village when a few locals “detained their autorickshaw near the Baredia bridge near the panchayat office and asked my son about his name and nativity”.

“While they heard his name, they abused my son and his friend in obscene language by casting…

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