Dalit woman’s body taken off funeral pyre by upper caste group in Agra; police probes incident

Agra: Agra Police on Tuesday said they were investigating a case in which the body of a Dalit woman was allegedly removed from the cremation ground by people belonging to "upper castes".Agra SP (Rural) Ravi Kumar said they have taken suo motu cognizance of the incident."The matter came to us through media. Nobody has registered the complaint in this regard. We have taken sou-motu cognizance of the incident and we are investigating the matter," Kumar told ANI.The incident occurred in Raibha village in Achhnera Block under the limits of the Kiraoli Police Station in Agra. A video of the incident, which took place about a week ago, had also gone viral.Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samjawadi Party (BSP) chief Maywati slammed the Yogi Adityanath government and demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident."In UP near Agra, the body of a Dalit woman was removed from the cremation ground by people of upper castes having casteist mentality because the cremation ghat belonged to upper castes. This is most shameful and most condemnable," Mayawati said a tweet."In this casteist and most disgusting incident, a high-level inquiry should be conducted by the UP government and the culprits should be given harshest punishment so that such incidents are not repeated in the future. This is the demand of the BSP," she added.