Police have been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure.
Bhopal:
A 50-year-old Dalit farm worker in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna was beaten to death by two men for refusing to give a matchbox demanded by the accused to light cigarettes, police said.
The incident took place in Karod village of Guna, around 630 kilometres from the state capital Bhopal. According to police, the victim, Lalji Ram Ahirwar, was resting on a platform in an agriculture field when the accused — Yash Yadav and Ankesh Yadav — thrashed him with sticks following an argument over the matchbox that the accused wanted to borrow from him.
“Yash Yadav and Ankesh Yadav attacked Lalji Ram Ahirwar with sticks for denying a matchbox. He got severely injured. He was admitted to Guna district hospital but died of his injuries,” additional Superintendent of Police, TS Baghel, told reporters.
Denying a matchbox allegedly costed the life of 50 years Lalji Ram Ahirwar in Guna, the accused Yash and Ankesh Yadav sought a matchbox from him to light their cigarettes, when he denied this led to heated exchange and physical attack @ndtv@ndtvindia#DalitLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/sjpFBXBlro
— Anurag Dwary (@Anurag_Dwary) November 29, 2020
The two accused have been arrested and a murder case has been registered against them, police said.
The state government has approved financial assistance of Rs 8.25 lakhs to the family of the victim.
Police have been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure.
Earlier this month, a 28-year-old tribal man was allegedly burnt alive over a loan of Rs 5,000. The opposition Congress had alleged that the victim was a “bonded labourer”.
In July, a Dalit farmer died by suicide in front of their children and police officers in Guna after officials from the district administration tried to bulldoze their crops to evict the family from a piece of “government-owned land”.
