Agra: A day after TOI reported about a Dalit bridegroom who was allegedly forced to get down from horse and made to walk to the wedding venue, Uttar Pradesh ST&SC commission issued notice to Etah police asking them to investigate the incident and take legal action against those involved. The panel has also asked the police also maintain law and order in the village.Speaking with TOI, superintendent of police (crime) O P Singh said, “A letter from state ST&SC commission chairperson Brij Lal, who is former DGP of UP, has been received. Since two FIRs have already been lodged by men belonging to both Dalit and Thakur castes, our team is probing the matter.”Meanwhile, Etah senior superintendent of police Ashish Tiwari said, “A Provincial Armed Constabulary team and a mobile unit have been deployed in the village to maintain peace. Probe is underway.”“Men from both the castes did engage in a clash on Wednesday night, after heavily inebriated Thakur men pelted stones on the wedding procession of a Dalit. In retaliation, Dalit men, too, attacked a few Thakurs. However, the Dalit groom’s claim that he was forced to get down from the horse and was made to walk to wedding venue is incorrect. In fact, the Dalit wedding was conducted in a peaceful manner afterwards,” the SSP said.Contracting the SSP’s claim, Harvendar Singh, the Dalit bridegroom, said, “Was he there? Did he witness the insult which my family members and I were subject to on a day which was supposed to be the most memorable one of my life? I was forced to get down from the horse. The Thakur men pelted stones at me and my eight-year-old nephew Parvesh, who sat beside me on the horse.”According to police, there were two weddings in the district’s Asrauli village on Wednesday. After the Thakur community took out a baraat on a horse in the village, local Dalit men, too, attempted to take out the baraat of a Dalit groom.However, as soon as the wedding procession started, heavily inebriated Thakur men allegedly abused the groom, pelted stones and forced him to walk to the venue.According to an FIR filed later, the unruly upper caste men also hurled stones and casteist slurs at Dalit men who were participating in the wedding procession in the district’s Asrauli village. Tension has gripped the area following the incident.An FIR lodged by the Thakur community men later said that the Dalits had “provoked” them and threatened to frame them “under false charges”.There are nearly 75 Dalit and 150 Thakur families in the village.In July, another Dalit groom in Kasganj, Sanjay Jatav had taken out his baraat through Thakur-dominated areas in the district’s Nizampur village after a long tussle with the upper caste men following the intervention of courts and the district administration.

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