Rajasthan: Dalit man forced to rub nose in temple in Alwar for criticising Hindu gods, 7 arrested

A Dalit man was allegedly forced to rub his nose on a platform inside a temple in Rajasthan's Alwar district after he made derogatory remarks about Hindu deities in an exchange on social media on the controversial film 'The Kashmir Files', police said on Wednesday.

An FIR was registered against 11 people on Tuesday night under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and seven accused have been arrested, police said.

The incident occurred under Behror Police Station on Monday. A video of the same went viral in which the victim, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, is purportedly seen rubbing his nose in a temple under pressure from people present there.

Circle Officer at Behror Police Station Rao Anand said Meghwal, who works in a private bank, had criticised 'The Kashmir Files' movie on Facebook two-three days ago. He had written a post against the movie, which invited critical comments.

In the Facebook post, the victim questioned whether atrocities had happened with Pandits only and not with Dalits. He wrote that atrocities are happening with the poor daily and they are not safe.

Responding to his post, some users wrote 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Shri Krishna' in the comments. Meghwal allegedly reacted to this with some derogatory remarks against the gods which provoked the people.

Later, Meghwal sought an apology on social media for his comments but some locals forcibly took him to a temple on March 21 and asked him to seek apology there.

"Some of the people present there forced him to rub in nose in the temple and he did as he was told to," the CO said.

Taking action in the matter, the police have arrested seven accused identified as Ajay Kumar Sharma, Sanjeet Kumar, Hemant Sharma, Parvinder Kumar, Ramavtar Singh, Nitin Jangid and Dayaram, he said.