A Dalit man in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district alleged that his face and body was smeared with human excreta by a man on Friday after he touched him with grease, reported PTI.

The Madhya Pradesh Police detained the accused, Ramkripal Patel after Dashrath Ahirwar filed a complaint against him on Saturday. The alleged incident occurred when Ahirwar was working at a construction site for the panchayat in Bikaura village of Chhatarpur district.

Ahirwar and other labourers were joking with Patel, who was bathing nearby. They were hurling things at each other playfully when Ahirwar put grease on Patel’s hand, an unidentified police official said, reported PTI. This triggered Patel, who picked up human excreta and threw it on Ahirwar’s back.

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“I had some grease on my hand and by mistake that grease got smeared on Patel,” Ahirwar told reporters on Saturday. “After that, Patel brought human faeces lying nearby and smeared it on my body including head and face.”

Ahirwar also claimed that Patel used casteist slurs, reported PTI. “I reported the matter to the panchayat and called for a meeting,” he said. “Instead, the panchayat imposed a fine of Rs 600 on me on Friday.”

Patel has been booked under sections 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Sub Divisional Officer of Police Manmohan Singh Baghel told PTI.

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Earlier this month, an Adivasi man in the state’s Sidhi district was urinated on by an upper caste man. The video of the incident had drawn sharp reactions from the Opposition following which the police booked the accused Pravesh Shukla under the National Security Act, and under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

However, days later the victim Dashmat Rawat urged the Madhya Pradesh government to release Shukla, saying he has now realised his mistake