Photos of Dr BR Ambedkar printed on paper plates controversy-Police quashes FIR against complainants
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 25,2023
The Andhra Pradesh police have quashed the first information report (FIR) against the complainants and have invoked the SC/ST Act against the hotel that served food on paper plates with pictures of Dr B R Ambedkar on it, the state government apprised the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) in an action taken report.
In July last year, the NCSC had received a complaint through Twitter and social media that the Annapurna restaurant in the Konaseema district was serving food on paper plates with the picture of Ambedkar on it. It was learnt that when the Dalits were served the food in those plates, they had opposed the move and a tussle had broken out between the restaurant owner and the complainants. Following this, two cases were registered at Ravulapalem Police station.
The first case was registered against the hotel owner whereas the second case was registered against the 18 young dalit men.
Taking strong notice of the incident, the commission took suo-motu notice of the case and conducted several hearings with the officials of the state government. The commission had asked the Andhra Pradesh government to conduct a fair inquiry into the matter.
“Ensure that the FIR against the dalit men is quashed and the hotel owner, who was responsible for serving the food on paper plates with Ambedkar’s pictures, is punished as per law”, NCSC chairman Vijay Sampla had instructed the Andhra Pradesh government.
After implementing the NCSC’s direction, Andhra Pradesh chief secretary submitted a reply to NCSC and said that the district police have quashed the FIR against the 18 youths belonging to SC community, who were the complainant against the restaurant. Also, as instructed by the commission, various sections of SC/ST act and sections 295, 506 and 504 of IPC were included in the complaint against the restaurant owner.
The state government is also conducting an unbiased and independent enquiry to find out the accused who had printed the photos on the paper plates, the chief secretary said.
Photos of Dr BR Ambedkar printed on paper plates controversy-Police quashes FIR against complainants. The state government further said that the government gives highest concern to the crimes against the weaker sections of society, particularly SC/STs.
