About To Win Kabaddi Match, Dalit Team Thrashed In Millennium City Gurgaon

Gurgaon: When the players of a Dalit team took the lead in the match, upper caste men watching the game pulled out guns.  Shots were fired in the air creating chaos; bamboo sticks came raining down on young men like 22-year-old Raju Kumar, who was among the four Dalits seriously injured.

The kabaddi match had been organized by the local village head on Independence Day to help strengthen the community in Gurgaon, where offices of some of the world's biggest multi-nationals are edged by villages that still practice discrimination of all sorts -- against women, against lower castes.

Around 40 teams from different villages were invited to the tournament, held at a local school.

The Dalits who were thrashed say they were assaulted by upper caste men from their own village.

One of the injured men, Raju, told NDTV, "They said, 'how can you low cast people win against us? We'll leave you in such a state that you can never play again'."

Vijender, 34, who suffered from a head injury, alleged that even his family was not spared. "They hit my wife, brother and even my son got injured in the scuffle." His 8-year-old son Ishan added, "They pushed me and hit me with a chair on my head." The family has been admitted at a hospital in Gurugram.

"There were seven people who were involved in the attack. We are investigating the matter," said Hawa Singh, a senior officer of the Gurgaon Police.

No arrests have been made so far.