Bengaluru: Local residents and dalit organisations on Sunday prevented a family from burying a 11-year-old girl’s body at a burial ground in Hennur as they were non-dalits.
The local police had a tough time resolving the issue between leaders of the dalit organisations and the girl’s parents. The parents yielded to the pressure and took the body to Tamil Nadu for burial.
Shwetha,11, a resident of Babusapalya, died of some ailment. Her body was brought to a burial ground, situated close to a lake, behind the Hennur police station. Some local residents objected to the burial taking place there.
The local residents and dalit leaders who rushed to the place claimed that the burial ground belonged to dalits. They said they could not permit the burial of the body as there was hardly any space there.
Shwetha’s parents claimed that they were living in the locality for the last three decades. They said that they had buried the bodies of their grandparents on the same ground. But, the dalit leaders were firm and stopped the burial.
The police came to the spot after Shwetha’s parents approached them. The police verified the official records and said that the piece of land adjacent to the lake was encroached upon and converted into the burial ground. Converting a part of the lake land into a burial ground was illegal and hence burial of bodies could not be permitted, the police said.
They resolved the matter amicably by holding meetings with both the groups.
