Mirchpur

In 2010, Jai Prakash's house at Dalit Valmiki community colony of Mirchpur has a 2 year old dog named Ruby, which allegedly barked at some 10 to 15 drunk boys from Jat community drove on motorcycles in front of his house.^[4][5] One of the Jat boys, Rajinder Pali hurled a brick at the dog which was objected by a young Dalit boy named Yogesh which lead to physical fight between them.^[4] Jat boys threatened Dalits of dire consequences for this.^[4] Later. two Balmiki elders named Veer Bhan and Karan Singh apologized to Jat elders and still got beaten by them.^[4] Narnaund's Station House Officer (SHO) Vinod Kumar Kajal was close to a prominent Jat of Mirchpur.^[4] On 21 April 2010 all Dalit men were invited for a compromise to another place.^[4] In their absence, 300 to 400 Jat men,^[6] women came with jerry cans of kerosene and petrol, agricultural implements and lathis first ransacking jewels, cash, clothes in the houses and then setting the homes ablaze with Dalit women and kids inside.^[7] This led to Death by burning of 70-year-old Tara Chand and his 18-year-old physically challenged daughter Suman in fire.^[4][8] After this incident, 200 Dalit families left the village fearing for their safety. Only 50 families remained with a group of 75 CRPF personnel deployed in the village.^[9] Police named 103 people in the charge sheet out of which 5 were juveniles.^[10] In September 2011, 15 people were convicted and 82 acquitted by a Sessions court.^[11] CRPF was withdrawn in December 2016. In January 2017, Shiv Kumar a 17-year-old Dalit boy (also a district-level athlete) won a cash prize of Rs 1,500 in the cycle-stunt competition at a local playground.^[12][13] including Jats allegedly passing casteist remarks against him which led to a fight where nine Dalit youths, aged between 14 and 25, were severely injured. After this incident remaining 40 Dalit families also left the village.^[14] On 24 August 2018, in a landmark judgement^[15] Delhi High Court reversed the acquittal of 20 accused and upheld the conviction of 13 others in the case with enhanced punishment for nine of them.^[16][17] A bench of justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta observed

The incidents of April 21, 2010 constituted an act of deliberate targeting of Balmiki houses by Jats, setting them on fire in a pre-planned and carefully orchestrated manner. It was pursuant to a conspiracy by the Jats to ‘teach the Balmikis a lesson’.^[18]

The statement that atrocities by those belonging to dominant castes against Scheduled Castes have shown no sign of abating even after 71 years of Independence forms part of the 209-page judgement authored by Justice S Muralidhar.^[19][20] After the verdict, two police companies were deployed in Mirchpur under the charge of duty magistrate and DSP.^[21] The next day, witnesses in the case didn't step out for work fearing backlash of the verdict.^[22]

• List of Indus Valley Civilization sites