Jagatsinghpur, March 26 (IANS) Upper caste residents allegedly denied a woman from drawing water from a tube well in a village in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district because she was a Dalit, the police said Wednesday. Lochan Sethi, 25, a resident of Iribisa village some 120 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, told the police that she was denied from taking water and was assaulted by the village upper caste people when she tried to draw water from the village tube well.

About 10 Dalit families are dependent on one tube-well located in the Harijan Sahi of the village. But since last month, it is not functional, police station in charge B.C. Barik told IANS.

While most of the families were compelled to take polluted water from a nearby pond, Lochan went Tuesday evening to the area where the upper caste villagers live and took water from a tube well located in the area, the police inspector said.

“The upper caste people allegedly assaulted her and took away the bucket filled with water,” he said.

“The persons who prevented her from taking water and attacked her will be arrested soon,” he said. “We are raiding the village to nab them,” he added.