A contractual Electricity Department employee and three others were arrested for assaulting a 21 year old Dalit man and forcing him to lick the slippers of the electricity employee in Sonabhadra district, Uttar Pradesh.

While the electricity employee who has been identified as Tejbali Singh Patel was arrested for assaulting the Dalit man, three others were arrested for helping Patel, the assaulter.

Uttar Pradesh police registered a case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocity Act (SC/ST Act) 1989, along with other sections of the Indian Penal code (IPC) i.e., sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation) at Shahganj police station and arrested four persons including the alleged assaulter/electricity employee.

The action against them came following the videos of the incident went viral on social media.

Patel had allegedly assaulted the Dalit man on Thursday as he was angry with him for checking the faulty electrical wiring, as reported by the Indian Express.

In one of the videos, Patel is seen brutally assaulting and abusing Rajendra Chamar, 21, the Dalit man and asking the person shooting the video to share it “in a group”.

While in the second video, the Chamar is seen licking the shoes of Patel and apologizing while holding his ears and doing sit-ups.

The police lodged a case after Rajendra filed a complaint at the Shahganj police station.

Speaking to the reporters, Rajendra said, “I had gone to my uncle’s house. There was some issue with the power wire, and I was looking at it. Tejbali reached there and started assaulting me with sticks. He also made me spit on his shoes and lick it. For two days, I didn’t say anything. But now, I have come to lodge a case”.

Following the incident, the Electricity Department relieved the accused Patel from his job.

Earlier, a similar incident had occurred when a man urinated on a labourer from a tribal community in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district which also went viral on social media.