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Dalit family finally gets some respite from court

Special Correspondent

Sessions court sends the case back to magistrate with direction to pass a fresh order

JAIPUR: A Dalit family in Nimora village near here -- facing persecution for constructing a temple of Lord Hanuman and worshipping the deity -- has finally got some reprieve with a Sessions court striking down an order of a lower court, which had accepted the closure by police of a criminal case against the higher caste people.

Additional Sessions Judge Prakash Chand Sharma quashed the verdict of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bassi, by which he had accepted the final report of police and rejected a protest petition of the victimised Dalit family. The Sessions court remanded the case back to the magistrate with the direction to pass a fresh order.

The family of Krishna Gopal Dhanka is being harassed for over three years for its "audacity'' to build the Hanuman temple on its own land. Brahmins in the village assaulted the family members for conducting regular worship and imposed a fine of Rs. 21,000 on them. The family was twice hounded out for several days and could return to the village on the intervention of higher authorities.

The prosecution not only filed a final report in the case on behalf of the police in the magistrate's court, but also presented a case under Sec. 182 of Indian Penal Code against Dhanka for giving "false information'' to the police. The magistrate accepted the final report, rejected Dhanka's protest petition and initiated criminal proceedings under Sec. 182 against him last year.

The Sessions court in Jaipur, while accepting the revision application of the Dalit family, observed that the lower court had erred by not taking into account Dhanka's statements and the evidence collected by police during investigation.

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