An eight-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly beaten up for touching a water bucket kept near a handpump at a village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, police said.

The incident took place at around 9.30 am on Saturday in Alwar’s Mangleshpur village, when the boy, a class 4 student at the government school, went to drink water at the handpump located within the school premises, according to the Indian Express.

According to the complaint, a man from an upper caste, who was filling up water in a bucket at the time, assaulted the boy when he touched the bucket.

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The boy’s father, who filed a police complaint in the matter, told The Indian Express, “There is a handpump inside the school boundary from where other people of the village also fill up their water. My son just touched the bucket to move it aside and drink water from the hand pump. The man was from an upper-caste community, and he brutally beat up my son. Hearing his shrieks, my relative, who was passing by the school, reached the spot and saw my son weeping. I was informed about the incident and we went to the culprit’s home.”

According to the father, the man refused to apologise, and instead, used casteist slurs against him and his family. The man also allegedly told them that they would not be able to do anything about the incident.

When the family members complained about the incident to the school principal, the latter said it was a police matter and sent them to the station.

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The family members lodged their complaint at the Ramgarh police station, following which a case was registered, and an investigation was initiated into the matter.

“My son is terrified to go back to school. He has asked me to withdraw this complaint and is not ready to go back to school as he fears that the man will hit him again. I just want justice to be delivered and the culprit to be punished,” the boy’s father said.

In a similar incident last year, a Dalit student was physically assaulted for touching a pot in a school in Jalore district.