By IANS
Patna : Two minor Dalit girls drowned and angry villagers alleged a policeman had thrown them into floodwater because they were collecting firewood from his orchard in a Bihar village Wednesday.
Kamli, 10, and Chandni, 8, of Manipur village under Mathurapur police station in Samastipur district, about 90 km from here, were allegedly thrown into floodwater by Lalal Singh, a Bihar Military Police constable, for collecting firewood from his orchard.
“The girls died as they did not know how to swim,” said Arjun Paswan, Chandni’s father.
Samastipur district magistrate N. Sharwan Kumar has ordered a probe into the incident. “Stringent action will be taken against the policeman,” Kumar said.
Singh was reportedly under the influence of liquor at the time of the incident.
The villagers held a demonstration with the girls’ bodies and blocked the Samastipur-Darbhanga Road for four hours, demanding Singh’s arrest. He was reportedly absconding.
The incident highlights the plight of the socially marginalized community.
Four days ago, Navin Kumar Paswan, a nine-year-old Dalit boy of Purnea district, lost vision in one of his eyes after he was hit by the headmaster and schoolteacher for demanding more food during the mid-day meal in his school.
Recently, three Dalit girls, Class I students of the Kasturba Gandhi Residential Girls School in Saharsa district, were allegedly branded with hot iron for refusing to clean the classroom as directed by the school warden.
Earlier this month, a Dalit woman employed to cook mid-day meals in a village school in Rohtas district was barred by upper caste Hindu men, but the government announced that she would continue to cook the meals.