A Dalit man in Ahmedabad has claimed that a senior police official forced him to lick the shoes of a constable, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday. However, the police filed a case only against the constable, and not Deputy Commissioner of Police Himkar Singh who had asked him to perform the act, said Harshad Jadav.
The case was filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Tuesday after Dalit groups protested outside the police station. Police Commissioner AK Singh said the crime branch will investigate the allegations.
The incident took place after the police had arrested Jadav, 38, on December 29 for allegedly assaulting the constable at a gathering in Amraiwadi in Ahmedabad.
“Sometime in the afternoon DCP Himkar Singh arrived and called me,” Jadav told The Indian Express. “He asked me how I could dare to hit a policeman, and then asked my caste. A police officer said that I was a Dalit, and this made the DCP angry. He asked me to fall at the feet of the constable whom I had pushed, and apologise. I did that. After that he asked me to lick the constable’s shoes and apologise.”
Jadav said he was “humiliated and wanted to commit suicide”.
DCP Singh denied the allegations and said, “Harshad was kept at Amraiwadi police station as he had assaulted a police officer. He was taken to court and then released on the same day. I do not know what happened between December 30 and January 1...We filed an FIR on January 2 to maintain law and order as a lot of people had surrounded the police station.”
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