ETAWAH: A group of upper caste men allegedly tonsured the head of a religious preacher and his aide after finding that they hailed from the Yadav caste in Dandarpur village of Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah district, police said.The incident of tonsuring took place on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, and the accused were arrested on Monday.After the video of the tonsuring went viral on social media, police swung into action and arrested four persons, including the main accused.The victims were ‘katha vachak’ (narrator of holy texts) and had gone to the village for a ‘Bhagwad Katha’.Senior Superintendent of Police, Etawah, Brijesh Kumar Srivastava said, “A video pertaining to Bakewar police station went viral on social media on Monday, in which it could be seen that after the Bhagwat Katha, villagers were misbehaving with two people, and cutting their hair despite their unwillingness”.Taking cognisance of the video, a police force reached the spot, and identified the person, whose hair was cut.Based on the complaint lodged by the victim, a case was registered at Bakewar police station in Etawah district, the SSP said, and added that four persons, including the main accused, have been arrested.The four accused have been identified as Ashish Tiwari, Uttam Kumar Awasthi, Nikki Awasthi, Manu Dubey, all residents of Dandarpur.In the video, which was also shared on X by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, the accused were purportedly heard saying, “You are getting punished for coming to the village of Brahmins.”Speaking to reporters, the assistant ‘katha vaachak’ identified as Sant Singh Yadav said, “Earlier, I used to run a private school but the government got the school closed. So I engaged myself in performing Bhagwat Katha, and I became an assistant to ‘katha vaachak’ Mukut Mani Yadav. ”
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