Lying in a Patna hospital, 50-year-old Dalit Bhola Chowdhury starts shivering when asked to name those who stabbed him in the eye. ‘‘They will kill me,’’ he says.

The landless toddy-seller from Mahinawan village of Patna district has lost his left eye completely. On Monday night, a group of village strongmen pounced on him on his way home, ‘‘blindfolded him and beat him up.’’ Then they stabbed him in the left eye, says wife Rampoori Devi.

Dr U. P. Sinha of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) said that Bhola’s left eye was severely injured. ‘‘There was no way it could have been saved. We have operated and removed the eye,’’ the doctor said.

But why was Bhola assaulted? ‘‘We don’t know. We are poor people. We do not have enmity with anyone in the village,’’ his wife says. But she admits her husband had a fight with village strongmen over toddy a couple of days ago. But she’s too scared to name them.

The family is landless and earns a living out of selling toddy. Circle Inspector of Bihta, Shakeel Azam, said that two days ago Bhola had a brawl with Mahesh Yadav over toddy. ‘‘We suspect that this could have led to the attack. But we can’t act since nobody has been named in the FIR,’’ he said.

Dalit targets

The state has witnessed at least three other attacks against Dalits this month. In all cases, the police acted only after the Chief Minister's intervention.

• Seven Dalit women from Suryagarha in Lakhisarai district alleged that they had been raped by members of a powerful upper caste on August 7 and charged that the police refused to lodge an FIR. Police acted only on Tuesday, after the opposition RJD raised the issue.

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