Two people have been arrested by the Myagdi Police on charge of assaulting school principal allegedly motivated by caste-based discrimination.
Resh Bahadur Bishwakarma, head teacher at the Janajyoti Basic School based in Raghuganga rural municipality, 42, was allegedly manhandled by two locals Bal Bahadur Roka and Jitendra Jugjali for just the victim belongs to the Dalit community, said the police. The two have also been charged with verbally abusing and thrashing the school principal, leaving him injured.
The accused were arrested Sunday and the District Court Sunday itself granted permission to the police to keep them more five days in detention for investigation, said Inspector Dhruba Prasad Sharma, information officer at the District Police Office, Myagdi’s.
They were arrested acting upon a FIR filed against them by the victim. Now, they faced a lawsuit for committing the caste-based discrimination. It may be noted the school management committee on April 18 arranged a meeting with locals in the committee chair Parbati Purja’s residence. Roka and Jugjali attacked Bishwakarma for entering Purja’s home being a Dalit.
They forcibly took him out from the meeting hall with verbal abuses and threw him down to the house yard. The victim suffered a problem in his leg. He visited the Beni Hospital the following day and the hospital referred him to the Pokhara-based Manipal Teaching Hospital on April 20.
Though the teacher had proceeded to file a complaint against his assaulters on April 20 with the help of his son, the complaint got registered only on April 28. Meanwhile, the Joint Political Dalit Struggle Committee Myagdi has condemned the incident that solely manifests the caste-based discrimination.
The prevailing act against the Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability provisions a one year jail-sentence and a fine of up to Rs 100,000 for a convict of committing a crime under the act.
