Note: The Wire apologises for the errors and misinformation in the earlier version of the story. It previously reported that a child who was defecating in the open was killed. In fact, it was the child of the person who complained about public urination. The story has been corrected based on the FIR.
Bhopal: On Tuesday morning, an 18-month-old boy was allegedly beaten to death by a neighbour in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district after a tussle over public urination.
The incident took place in Bagaspur village, which is 100 km away from the district headquarters. The deceased infant was identified as Bhagwan Singh in the FIR, who was living with his father Mohar Singh. In the FIR, Mohar Singh says his wife “left” Bhagwan Singh with him. Both the victims’ family and the accused belong to Scheduled Tribes. The accused also belong to an ST community.
At around 5:30 pm on October 1, Mohar Singh says in the FIR, he was coming back home when he saw his neighbour Ram Singh’s son Vakeel urinating near his house. “When I stopped him from doing so, Ram Singh and his son Umesh Singh came at me with sticks.” They hit him and Bhagwan Singh multiple times, he says in his complaint, and Bhagwan Singh died on the spot.
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“When a neighbour informed the police about the incident, we rushed an ambulance to the spot. The boy had already died and we took his injured father to a hospital,” said Bina sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Shruv Raj Singh.
Mohar Singh received multiple head injuries and other parts of his body are also injured. He is undergoing treatment in the district government hospital.
The police said that both the accused and the victims are from Scheduled Tribe communities. Neither have access to toilets and defecate in the open.
SDOP Shruv Raj Singh said, “An FIR has been registered against Ram Singh and Umesh in Bhangarh police under relevant sections of the IPC. They have been arrested.”
Despite several attempts, the district collector of Sagar Preeti Maithil Nayak was unavailable for comment.