Five held for allegedly assaulting Dalits in Anand District
The incident comes to light a year after the flogging of Dalit youths in Una stirred much political storm. (File/Photo) The incident comes to light a year after the flogging of Dalit youths in Una stirred much political storm. (File/Photo)
Sojitra police in Anand district of Gujarat has booked five persons in an alleged case of atrocity and assault of Dalits, residing in the Rohitvaas area of Kasor village in Sojitra taluka. The incident comes to light a year after the flogging of Dalit youths in Una stirred much political storm. According to the police, the complainant in this case, Shailesh Rohit, has alleged that his mother and he were assaulted for skinning dead cattle–most Dalit families in the community in Kasor village skin dead cattle for a living.
Anand police officials said that the incident occurred on Saturday night when a mob of people belonging to the Kshatriya community, commonly called Darbars, marched towards the Rohitvaas area of the village and allegedly attacked the house of the victim, manhandling his mother and him. While members of the Dalit community complained to the police on Saturday night, an investigation was initiated into the case on Sunday. On Monday, the Anand police served notices to the accused, who have been identified by the victims, the police said.
Superintendent of Police, Anand, Saurabh Singh said, “We have issued a notice to the accused to appear before the police station for investigation, as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court. We have identified the accused based on the statement of the victim. The accused have been asked to appear on Wednesday as Tuesday being Independence Day and Janmashtmi, the force is busy in bandobast. The accused are very much present in the village and we will question them on Wednesday. They will be arrested soon.”
Officers of Sojitra police station said that the victim has said in his statement that the accused had warned him of “dire consequences” if he did not give up skinning cattle in the area. An officer said, “The victim said that the group would often indulge in altercations with the victim. However, a day before Saturday’s assault, they threatened him and asked him not to skin animals in the village as it emanates severe stench. According to the victim, since he did not want to indulge in a fight, he stopped the skinning and went home. But the mob attacked his house on Saturday.”
The police have booked Dhola Parmar, Vijay Parmar, Jaimin Parmar, Kaushik Parmar and a family member of Narsinh Parmar. The accused have been booked under IPC Section 323 (Assault), 506 (Criminal intimidation), and under various sections of the The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
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