Date:15/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/15/stories/2006111503551600.htm

National

Dalits' murder: AIDWA plans stir

Special Correspondent

Centre should take note: Brinda Karat

Brinda Karat

NEW DELHI: The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has sought a CBI inquiry into the killing of four Dalits in Khairlanji village in Maharashtra earlier this month.

In a statement here on Tuesday, after its vice presidents Brinda Karat and Kalindi Deshpande returned from the site, the AIDWA called upon the Central Government to take note of the matter.

It also decided to raise the issue with the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women.

Nationwide agitation

The Association will launch a nationwide agitation to ensure that the culprits are brought to book. Criticising the manner in which the State Government handled the issue, it called for the dismissal of the police officers guilty of dereliction of duty.

Two women and two men of the same family were stripped naked and paraded in the village before being brutally murdered allegedly by members of the upper castes, but the police refused to take cognisance of the incident, the statement said.

The organisation condemned the manner in which Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra R.R. Patil dismissed the protests by the Dalit community as the work of `naxalites.'

These remarks were an attempt to overlook the caste prejudice of the police, it said.