Panchamasalis in Karnataka allegedly set fire to Dalit homes over temple entry
The attackers also allegedly assaulted and molested several Dalit women, following an altercation over the Dalit residents of the village attempting to join the local deity’s procession and enter the temple.
Members of the dominant Panchamasali Lingayat community in Nandihalli village in Ranebennur taluk of Karnataka’s Haveri district allegedly molested women from the Madiga community, a Scheduled Caste, after they tried to enter a local temple during a village fair. The perpetrators also allegedly set fire to at least two houses in the Dalit colony of the village. The alleged attack happened on March 3, the day a procession held as part of the village fair for the deity Dyamavva passed through the Dalit colony.
A verbal altercation reportedly ensued between the two groups, with the Panchamasali Lingayats allegedly using abusive language and casteist slurs. Speaking to TNM, Nandihalli resident and Dalit journalist Ramesh Malladad said, “Later that night [following the argument], a few upper caste people set fire to Dalit leader Maridevappa’s house. They even molested Dalit women and assaulted our youth.”
The violence did not end there. The attackers allegedly hurled stones at houses in the Dalit colony, and repeatedly made offensive remarks about the Madiga community. “They threw stones at our houses and constantly said that we Madigas should not enter the temple. They even tore an Ambedkar banner that was put up in our colony,” Ramesh said.
According to the first information report (FIR), on March 3, members of the Panchamasali Lingayat community also allegedly stopped Ramesh and his mother Hemmavva when they tried to enter the Basaveshwara temple in the village. “They said that Dalits should not enter the temple. One of them threatened me by saying that he would break my legs if I entered the temple” Ramesh said.
The Halageri police have registered a case under The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint), 451(house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The FIR names around 30 accused in the case.
