Man held for passing casteist remarks against hockey player Vandana Katariya

Police arrested a man in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district for allegedly mocking and passing casteist remarks against the family of Vandana Katariya who was part of India's women hockey team which lost a semifinal match at the Tokyo Olympics.

Soon after the Indian team went down to Argentina in the semifinal, two men allegedly danced and burst firecrackers outside Katariya's house in the Roshnabad area of Haridwar in a gesture of mockery on Wednesday evening, an official at SIDCUL police station said.

Read | Hockey player's family abused with casteist slurs after semi-final loss at Tokyo Olympics

When some members of Katariya's family came out hearing the noise outside their house, the two men also passed casteist remarks against them, saying the hockey team had lost because it had too many Dalit players in it, he said.

A heated argument also took place between members of the family and the two men involved in the incident, following which a complaint was lodged by Katariya's brother, the official said.

A man, identified as Vijay Pal, has been arrested and booked in connection with the incident under section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code and the SC-ST Act, the official said.

The other man involved in the incident has not been arrested yet, he said.