Prajapati said he was not aware of the incident. 'I will look into it,' he told IANS.

This is not an isolated case of atrocity on Dalits.

According to statistics from February 2008 to 2009 compiled by the police headquarters (PHQ), there have been 40,250 registered cases of atrocities against Dalits.

While Chhatarpur district tops the list with 215 registered cases of atrocities against Dalits, Morena was second with 197 registered cases and Sagar third with 194 cases.

Even Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan's hometown and his parliamentary constituency Vidisha has not been spared. Here 129 cases have been recorded.

In Betul district, where Das's village is located, the number of registered cases stood at 129.

'The actual cases could be double, or even more, as in most of the cases the poor and the downtrodden are not able to muster the courage to report the matter to the police, and again, on so many occasions even the police are found to be unwilling to register cases against upper caste people,' a senior police official confessed on condition of anonymity.