Gujarat police accused of apathy as atrocities against Dalits continue
In yet another incident of caste atrocity in Gujarat, two men of a Dalit family were killed while four others, including women, were injured by a mob of Darbar (Kshatriya) men last week. The incident took place in Samadhiyala village in Chuda taluka of Surendranagar district of the state.
Notably, the Dalit family had reportedly informed the local police, as well as the District Collector, that they were being threatened by the Darbar family and had sought protection. The Darbars were allegedly trying to take over their plot of land.
Incidentally, this isn’t the first incident in Gujarat where a Dalit family or person has died in an attack by an upper caste community while waiting for police protection.
Dispute over land
Advocate Subodh Parmar representing the Dalit family told The Federal that the Parmars were being threatened for a long time over the piece of land bought by the father of the deceased brothers. Incidentally, the plot is located near another owned by the Darbars.
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Fed up with the continued harassment, the Parmars lodged a legal complaint against the Darbars, and the local court passed an order in favour of the Dalit family, said Advocate Parmar. “The family made repeated representation to the district police and administration, seeking police protection for their safety. The last representation was made to the Surendranagar SP on July 5. However, the requests fell on deaf ears,” added Subodh, a Dalit lawyer based out of Ahmedabad.
The FIR, based on a complaint lodged by Parul Kodabhai Parmar, 60, sister-in-law of the deceased brothers, also mentions that the family had informed the local police and the District Collector that they were being threatened by the Darbars over the plot.
What police did
The district administration, however, refused to talk about the repeated requests for police protection by the victims’ family. However, after the family refused to accept the victims’ bodies, Gujarat Police suspended two sub-inspectors for negligence.
“A special process has been initiated to appoint a special public prosecutor for the speedy trial of the case,” said Ashok Kumar, Inspector General of Rajkot range that has jurisdiction over Surendranagar.
“An FIR in connection with the double murders has been registered. The accused are currently absconding but we are making efforts to arrest them,” said Surendranagar SP Haresh Dudhat.
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One in a series of similar incidents
Reacting to the incident, Dalit activist-turned-Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani remarked, “A Dalit family cannot even own a piece of land in Gujarat. What steps is the Gujarat government taking to ensure that this cycle of caste atrocity against Dalits in the state breaks?”
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The brothers’ murders brings to mind the brutal killing of Manjibhai Solanki in June 2019. The 55-year-old Dalit deputy sarpanch of Jalila village in Botad district’s Ranpur taluka was attacked with pipes and iron rods, allegedly by upper caste men of his village.
Solanki succumbed to his injuries en route to a hospital in Ahmedabad but he managed to name the accused in his dying statement. It led to an FIR being filed against three men belonging to the Darbar caste of the same village. Solanki reportedly earned the ire of the upper caste men of his village because he used to help fellow Dalit villagers file cases of atrocity and fight the legal battle.
Wait for protection
Solanki had allegedly been attacked eight times between 2010 and 2018 by the same group of men and threatened multiple times, too. He had applied for a weapon licence and sought police protection, just like the Parmar family.
However, until his death, the approval for the weapon license remained pending with the then Collector of Botad, while his requests for police protection awaited approval from the State Home Ministry and Director General of Police.
Solanki made the last representation to the district police on June 6, 2019, 13 days before he was killed by the very men who had been threatening him.
“Manjibhai Solanki did make a representation to the district police on June 6, 2019, and had requested for personal security personnel. As part of the due process, the police station concerned was assessing the threat,” said Harshad Mehta, the then SP of Botad.
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Repeated caste atrocities
In a similar incident, Prakash Parmar, a 34-year-old Dalit worker in a ceramic factory was killed, allegedly by men also belonging to the Darbar caste in Surendranagar, to avenge a complaint lodged against them by Prakash’s brother. In this case, too, the accused had been threatening the family for months before Prakash was attacked.
A few days after this incident, Rajesh Sondarva, son of a Dalit RTI activist, was thrashed to death near Rajkot, allegedly by men accused of killing his father a year ago. The accused were out on bail when they attacked Sondarva. The family had sought police protection for the safety of Rajesh, who was the complainant in his father’s murder case.
Similarly, in 2018, Piyush Sarvaiya, brother of Lalji Sarvaiya, who was burnt to death in his house in Una by a mob belonging to the upper castes in 2012, was attacked by men accused of killing his brother. Arjanbhai Makwana, one of the convicts out on parole, and Arshi Vaja, whose father and brother were convicted of Lalji’s murder, reportedly rammed their motorcycle into Piyush’s bike and thrashed him as he fell.
Luckily for Piyush, he survived the attack. But the family, which was never granted police protection, finally fled the village to save their lives.
