Dalit mid-day meal manager ends life after 'torture' by

A Dalit man, who used to work as the manager of the mid-day meal scheme at a primary school near Vadnagar town, allegedly committed suicide today after reportedly being tortured by three school teachers, police said.
The man, identified as Mahesh Chauhan, ended his life by jumping into a well, they said.
According to police, the three school teachers have been booked for abetment to suicide.
Taking a serious note of the incident, Gujarat Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Ishwar Parmar, ordered an inquiry into the incident and assured that action will be taken based on the report submitted by the officials.

According to the FIR lodged at the Vadnagar police station of this district today, Chauhan committed suicide by jumping into a well near Shaikhpur village of Vadnagar taluka this morning.
Based on the 'suicide note' recovered by the police from his body, Chauhan's wife Ilaben lodged a complaint with Vadnagar police against three teachers of Shaikhpur primary school, situated near Vadnagar town, a police officer said.

In the FIR, she alleged that her husband committed suicide because he was "fed up with the torture by three teachers, who have been harassing Chauhan for being a Dalit".
"The three teachers, identified as Momin Hasan Abbasbhai, Vinod Prajapati and Amaji Thakor, have been booked for abetting suicide (IPC section 306) and under various sections of Prevention of Atrocities Act," Circle Police Inspector R L Kharadi said.

However, they have not been arrested yet, he said.
Vadnagar is the hometown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As per the FIR, Chauhan had been working as the mid-day meal scheme manager at Shaikhpur primary school near Vadnagar since the last one year with a monthly salary of Rs 1,600.
Ilaben, who used to work as a cook in the same school, alleged that though the family was reeling under acute cash crunch, these three teachers used to force his husband to spend money on their snacks.
She alleged that her husband was fed up with such "torture" by these teachers.

Ilaben claimed that her husband was subjected to such atrocities as he belonged to the Dalit community.
According to Kharadi, all the three teachers have went on leave after Chauhan's suicide.
"We have taken the FIR and handed over the case to the Deputy SP of SC/ST Cell for investigation," he said.