The incident took place at Lakh Khandala village in Vaijapur taluka on the night of March 14. Police have identified the deceased as Bhimraj Balasaheb Gaikwad (17).

By: Express News Service | Pune | Published: March 17, 2020 12:45:38 am

Based on an FIR lodged by Bhimraj’s mother Alka, police on March 15 arrested two people identified as Devidas Devkar – the father of the missing girl – and his brother Rohidas Devkar under sections of the IPC and the SC/ST Act. (Photo for representational purpose)

A Dalit teenager was beheaded in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district and and his parents were attacked with sharp weapons over suspicions that the boy’s elder brother had “lured away” a girl from the Other Backward Class (OBC) community.

The incident took place at Lakh Khandala village in Vaijapur taluka on the night of March 14. Police have identified the deceased as Bhimraj Balasaheb Gaikwad (17). His father Balasaheb and mother Alka were shifted to a government hospital in Aurangabad city for treatment.

Bhimraj’s last rites were conducted on the afternoon of March 15 in a tense situation, with several messages on the incident going viral on social media.

Based on an FIR lodged by Bhimraj’s mother Alka, police on March 15 arrested two people identified as Devidas Devkar – the father of the missing girl – and his brother Rohidas Devkar under sections of the IPC and the SC/ST Act. The two were produced before a local court on Monday. “Court has remanded the accused to police custody till March 19 for further investigation,” said police inspector Anant Kulkarni of Vaijapur police station.

However, Bhimraj’s family has accused the police of “ignoring” a complaint regarding an alleged death threat made to the family.

According to the family, the trouble began when Bhimraj’s elder brother Amol left home on March 12 for some work but did not return home. A girl from the Devkar family reportedly went missing same day, and her family lodged a missing person’s complaint. That night, the girl’s brother Sagar allegedly went Gaikwad’s house and threatened to kill the family if they do not bring his sister and Amol by the next day.

Bhimraj and his father Balasaheb Gaikwad then approached the Aurangabad rural police on March 13. Activist Vishwas Bagul, who claimed to have accompanied them said, “We prepared a complaint application stating that Amol has gone missing and that Sagar Devkar has given threats to kill Gaikwad family. We first went to the office of deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Gopal Ranjankar with the complaint on March 13. He asked Gaikwad to visit the Vaijapur police station. He simply ignored that Gaikwad family got death threats from Devkar. We then went to Vaijapur police station, where a constable recorded missing report of Amol, but no preventive steps were taken in the view of death threats…,” Bagul sa