Haryana gets Supreme court notice for Dalit torching

Terming the killing of a 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old physically challenged daughter in Jat-dominated Mirchpur village in Haryana’s Hissar district “extremely serious”, a Supreme Court (SC) bench of justices GS Singhvi and CK Prasad on Monday  issued a notice to the Haryana government.

The notice was issued on a petition highlighting the plight of the 150 Dalit families which were driven out of the village in the caste-motivated bloody attack last April.

“It is an extremely serious matter,” the bench observed and asked the Hissar deputy commissioner (DC) to appear before it in person on Wednesday.

The judges told DC to come prepared with all relevant facts about the incident and seek instructions from the state government for rehabilitation of the victims.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has also said the bloody incident in the Congress-ruled state was a “matter of shame” and asked the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government to take “firm and severe” action against the perpetrators. “Such incidents cannot be allowed to happen,” she said.

Sonia took strong exception to the fact that the killings and torching of the village, in which 15 houses were burnt down, was done in the presence of a naib tehsildar and a police officer.

At least 20 families of the Valmiki community had reportedly fled following the arson on April 21.