Employer booked as Dalit man from Mumbai claims caste discrimination at workplace

Mumbai: The police have registered a case against the owner of an event management company here after one of its employees accused her of caste discrimination at workplace, an official said on Friday.

The 23-year-old complainant told the police that the owner of the company, located in Goregaon area, passed a snide remark showing caste bias on April 14, the birth anniversary of Dalit icon Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

The man received a WhatsApp message from his employer that day asking him whether he belonged to the SC (Scheduled Castes) community, the official said citing the complaint.

When the man replied in the affirmative, the company owner said she didn’t employ people from the “backward” community, he said.

In the WhatsApp exchange, the employer said “main Jai Bhim wale ko job pe nahi rakhti (I don’t employ Dalits)”, the complainant alleged.

The man, who had joined the company as a marketing executive, informed his parents about the experience and then approached the Goregaon police station with a complaint, the official said.

Acting on the complaint, a case was registered against the company owner under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, the official said.

As the man lives in the Vokola area, the case was transferred to the Vakola police station for further investigation, the official said.

Meanwhile, a purported screenshot of the WhatsApp exchange between the man and his employer went viral on social media.