Nude protest in Raipur over fake caste certificates

A group of men staged a nude protest in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur on Tuesday demanding action against people who got government jobs using fake caste certificates, officials said.

The police took more than a dozen nude protesters into custody when they were marching towards the state legislative assembly, they said.

The four-day monsoon session of the state assembly began on Tuesday.

The youths belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes communities stripped naked and marched towards the assembly carrying placards with messages demanding action against government employees who used fake caste certificates to get jobs.

The protesters were taken into custody near Ama Seoni turn under the Pandri police station area for staging a demonstration in an obscene manner, Raipur senior superintendent of police Prashant Agrawal told PTI.

Talking to reporters, one of the protesters said the state government's enquiry committee conducted a probe into fake caste certificate cases and found that 267 government employees had used forged SC/ST certificates, but no action has been taken against them so far.

“Earlier, we went on a hunger strike seeking action against them, but our demand remained unheard. Hence, we are now staging a naked protest. We demand that the fake caste certificate holders be arrested and the authorities seize property they have acquired,” he said, warning of more fierce demonstrations if the demands are not met.

The protest stunned passersby who shot videos of the naked men marching and shouting slogans on the road and shared it on social media.