Rs 20 lakh compensation to family of dalit youth who died after police custody

KAKINADA: Police say the issue over the death of Dalit youth, Bontha Mahindra, has been “settled” in Dommeru village of Kovvuru mandal in East Godavari district. However, the police picket is continuing in the village.

Kovvuru DSP V.S.N. Varma said the state government would sanction Rs 10 lakh to the aggrieved family and those responsible for the death would give the family another Rs 10 lakh.

Irresponsible police actions led to the youth’s death. Group rivalry in the YSRC in Dommeru village under Kovvuru Assembly constituency, represented by home minister Taneti Vanitha, led to the death.

The minister organised a Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam programme there, when one group set up flexis but Bontha Mahindra (21) allegedly tore them away.

Sub-inspector D. Bhushanam brought Mahindra to the police station and kept him there on November 13 without registering a case. In the evening, the Kovvuru Circle Police went to the police station and sent the youth to his house. But, for undisclosed reasons, Mahindra "attempted suicide" at night.

Following this, he was shifted to the Kovvuru government hospital and to a private hospital at Chagallu, then to two other private hospitals and later to the Manipal Hospital in Vijayawada. He died on November 15.

The East Godavari SP, P. Jagadish, suspended sub-inpector Bhushanam on a charge of “negligence” in his duty and confinement of the victim in the station without registering a case.

On Wednesday, the relatives of the dead and a group of YSRC cadres pelted stones at police vehicles.

DSP Varma said the situation was brought under control and the issue has been settled. The Kovvuru II police registered cases against three persons under the SC, ST Atrocities Prevention Act, on the charge of “provoking the Dalit Youth” to commit suicide.