At least three people were injured on Tuesday (June 3, 2025) after a wedding procession by members of a Dalit community was pelted with stones and hit with rods and sticks in Rahdra village in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh.

Two daughters of Rampal, a local belonging to the Jatav (Dalit) community, were getting married. Of the two wedding processions on Monday, the first was from Hasanpur, and the other, from Moradabad, arrived later. The baraat (wedding procession) of Sonam Kumari, the older daughter, arrived from Moradabad. The incident took place during the second procession.

“On June 2, a wedding procession was being carried out around 5.30 p.m. Around 15-20 people from the same village, belonging to the Yadav community, forcefully entered the wedding procession and stopped us from dancing. When we opposed it, all the above people used casteist words and attacked us with sticks, rods, knives, and sharp-edged weapons to kill us. I, too, received an open injury on my head and many other small injuries,” Kanhaiya, the complainant, and a resident of Rahdra, said.

He said many in the procession received knife injuries. “The Yadavs said, ‘how can people from our [Dalit] community take out wedding processions’?” Mr. Kanhaiya, who belongs to the Jatav community, alleged.

Charges have been filed under Sections 191(2) (rioting), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 109 (attempt to murder), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Police have also invoked the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (Amendment 2015). The case was registered at the Gajrala police station.

A video purported to be of the chaotic scene has surfaced on social media. Police said they had to resort to mild force to disperse the crowd and restore order. In view of the heightened tensions, a police force has been deployed to maintain law and order.

A senior police officer said that the incident had occurred because the road was narrow, loud music was playing in the background, and the people in the wedding procession could not provide space for the Yadav vehicles to pass. “This led to an argument, which later turned into an altercation,” the officer said.