Tilak Kami of Budeli VDC in the district, his wife Minu and elder brother Tek Bahadur have been displaced for the past one year after Minu’s parents and relatives allegedly chased them away for marrying a girl from the so-called upper-caste family.

Tilak had eloped with Minu Shahi one year ago. The trio is living in Surkhet. “My sons are not allowed to enter the village. They are displaced. There is no one to speak in my favour. I want justice,” Tilak’s 63-year-old mother Nanna shared her woes to visiting rights activities in the district on Monday.

Earlier, the three displaced people organised a press conference, seeking justice. “The District Administration Office is not serious about the case, nor does the state hear our woes. We want to return home,” Tilak said.

Nanna said Tek Bahadur was attacked when he came to the village to perform 13-day death ritual of his step- mother. “He (Tek Bahadur) has not returned home after the incident. I cannot go out. Locals mock me, calling me ‘Dumini’,” Nanna said. She said there is no one to take care of her in the house and that she calls her daughter Ranga whenever she falls ill.

Tilak, who was a relief-quota teacher at the Janakalyan Lower Secondary School, was expelled from his job after he eloped with Minu.

Nanna said Tilak is yet to get salary of 12 months. “We are scared to live here too as we heard that they may finish us off with the help of goons. We do not even visit bazaar,” Tilak said.

Meanwhile, Dalits in the village told rights activists that teachers discriminate their children on the basis of caste in school.

They said their children are forced to sit on floor in school while children from the so-called upper caste sit on the benches.

Minu’s uncle Tej Bahadur denied the accusation. “We have not issued any threats against them (Tilak and Tek Bahadur). They can live in the village,” he said.

Chairman of the Nepal National Dalit Society Welfare Association, Resham Sunar, said that Dalit victims in the village are not safe to lodge complaints with the authorities concerned.