A 35-year-old Dalit man from Uttar Pradesh allegedly died by suicide in Bengaluru on June 3, hours after filing a police complaint about caste discrimination at workplace, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
In a video he uploaded on YouTube before killing himself, Vivek Raj, a native of Basti district in Uttar Pradesh, said he was “unable to fight it anymore”, according to The Indian Express. A graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Raj was employed as a visual merchandiser at Lifestyle International Private Limited. In the video, Raj alleged that he was being harassed by his colleagues.
In a first information report registered hours before his death, Raj had accused two of his senior colleagues of discriminating against him on the basis of caste. The FIR was filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
In a separate complaint filed by his father, Raj’s reporting manager Malathi, and colleagues Kumar Suraj and Nithesh Kumar have been charged with abetment to suicide, The News Minute reported.
In the FIR filed after this complaint, it has been alleged that Raj was facing mental harassment for months and casteist slurs had been hurled at him at his workplace. The company did not take any action even as Raj approached his seniors, according to the FIR.
An unidentified police “source” told The Indian Express that even the police did not file his complaint till an assistant commissioner intervened in the matter. The source added that after Raj’s office came to know that he had approached the police, he had been asked to quit before June 18.
However, Lifestyle International claimed to have taken action in the case.
“Vivek had raised a complaint through our internal process, and a thorough internal investigation was conducted in accordance with company policies, outcomes were shared with him, and the appropriate actions were taken,” the company told The Indian Express. “As this matter is sub-judice and being investigated by the police, we are fully cooperating with their investigation.”
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In the video Raj posted before his death, he said that he was proud of “fighting the system” within the private sector.
“Coming from a particular background, studying hard, working hard, you change, you evolve and get better as a human being,” he said, according to The Indian Express. “You try to be kind to others. But the world is not kind to you. People with money, people with power will harass you, keep harassing you, not addressing the issue…They are ready to throw money, as much as possible, to hide the harassment but not correct or define the system.”
He also referred to Narendra Modi, saying that he knew the prime minister would not speak up on the matter. “I request you, to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SC/ST Commission, police to be more vigilant, to cooperate, to come up with a better grievance resolution system,” Raj said. “If my sacrifice brings it, let it be, so be it.”
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