An 18-year-old Dalit youth was allegedly beaten to death and his friend severely injured over his friendship with a minor girl from an upper caste community in Uttarakhand's Tehri Garhwal.
The deceased, Ketan Lal, was a resident of Deval village, and his injured friend, Diwakar Dimri, was admitted to the district hospital in Baurari.
According to a complaint lodged by Ketan's father, Dhanpal Lal, the incident occurred on Sunday night in Kholgarh village, where Ketan had reportedly been in a friendship with a girl from the village for the past six months.
Members of the girl's family locked them both in a room and assaulted them with sticks, the police said.
Tehri Garhwal Senior Superintendent of Police Shweta Choubey said a case under the charge of murder and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was filed.
The police had detained for questioning one of the accused, Yashveer Singh Panwar, the SSP added.
