A one-and-a-half-year-old boy died after being hit with a stick by his neighbour, whose son had urinated in the open, leading to an argument between the two families in Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, police said on Thursday, 3 October.
The incident occurred on Tuesday evening in Bagaspur village under the Bhangarh Police Station area, about 100-kms from the district headquarters, police said.
“The dispute started after the younger son (aged around seven years) of Ram Singh urinated on a road outside their residence on Tuesday evening. Ram Singh’s neighbour, Mohar Adivasi, objected to it, which angered the accused and led to the clash,” Sagar’s Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Vikram Singh said.
As per the complaint, Ram Singh and his son Umesh attacked Adivasi, who was holding his one-and-a-half-year-old boy in his arms, with sticks, he added.
“One of the sticks hit the toddler in Adivasi’s arms, who died on the spot due to excessive bleeding,” the police officer said, adding that Adivasi was also injured in the attack and admitted to a hospital in Bina.
There was an old rivalry between these families, he said. The accused, identified as Ram Singh and his 20-year old son Umesh, have been arrested, police said.
“Ram Singh and his son Umesh have been booked under relevant sections of the IPC and placed under arrest,” the officer said.
Subodh Mishra, in-charge of Bhangarh police station, said, “According to Adivasi, he had told Ram Singh to stop his children from urinating on the road as his family also used this stretch. This triggered a dispute between their families.”
When asked whether the families involved in the incident had toilets at home or not, Mishra expressed his ignorance.
The incident comes a week after two Dalit children were beaten to death, allegedly by upper-caste men, in Shivpuri district for defecating in the open.
On 25 September, two Dalit children - Roshani Balmiki (12) and her nephew Avinash Balmiki (10) were beaten to death by two persons for defecating on a street in front of a panchayat building at Bhavkhedi village in Shivpuri district. They did not have toilets at home.
(The copy has been edited for clarity.)
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