Vadodara: Four persons were detained on Thursday for beating up a Dalit man on Sevasi Canal Road some days ago. The cops swung into action after a video of Alpesh Parmar, a resident of Bhayli village, being assaulted went viral two days ago. Parmar filed a complaint with the taluka police station on Wednesday.
Parmar said in his complaint that without any provocation he was assaulted and verbally abused over his caste by seven men and some of them even hit him with a belt. The police, however, said that seven men had accused Parmar of stalking a girl. The assault had occurred on December 11 when Parmar was hanging out with a girl near Sevasi canal road.
According to Parmar’s complaint, he had made comment on the Instagram live of one of the accused and that may have led to the assault on him. The accused didn’t just thrash him but also recorded a video of the act. Parmar claimed that he didn’t approach the police as the accused had threatened him to not file any complaint.
But he decided to file FIR after the video of the assault on him went viral and his family, as well as friends, convinced him to take legal action.
Parmar said in his complaint that the accused uploaded the video on Instagram and Facebook with a warning that “this would happen to those who make negative remarks during our live telecast”. The accused ended the post with a slogan ‘Jai Rajputana’.
“The girl, with whom he (Parmar) was standing, has said that he was stalking her online. On December 11, she was doing Instagram live from a spot and Parmar learnt about her location following which he reached there and started talking to her. The accused arrived there within minutes and started thrashing Parmar,” Rohan Anand, superintendent of police (rural), Vadodara told TOI and added that they are verifying the girl’s claim too.
“We have detained four of the seven accused. Two of them are Rajputs and two belong to the Other Backward Classes category. We are probing the exact reason behind the assault,” Anand added.
The accused were charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for rioting, assault and criminal intimidation as well as provisions of the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“The complainant and accused both said that they don’t know each other. Interrogation of the accused will reveal why Parmar was assaulted,” said Balwantsinh Chavda, deputy superintendent of police, Vadodara.
Gujarat Congress working president and Dalit leader MLA Jignesh Mevani tweeted the video of the assault and called it an attempt to lynch a Dalit. He said that the incident took place because the Gujarat government has not taken steps to ensure the safety of Dalits.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news piece was originally published in timesofindia.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights.
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