The Dalit victims of the Una incident are still in fear, the accused says, ‘Remember what happened’

Six years ago, four Dalits were publicly thrashed half naked in Una (Una Dalits) of Gujarat, because they were skinning dead animals. The video of this incident went viral. The thrashings were the so-called ‘cow protectors’. Now once again the two accused in the case have been accused of threatening those Dalit victims. Police has registered a case against both the accused. The victims have complained that they have been threatened with death for not withdrawing the case.

Saket Anand

Police has registered a case against two accused.

According to the report of the English newspaper Indian Express, one of the victims of the incident, Vashram Sarvaiya and his father Balubhai Sarvaiya have lodged an FIR at the Una police station. The complaint names two accused Pramodgiri Goswami, Balwant Goswami and an unknown person. In the FIR, Vashram has said that he and his cousin Ashok were stopped by Pramod and Balwant in Una town. He threatened to kill and abused on the basis of caste.

Vashram and Ashok are among the victims who were publicly thrashed in 2016. According to the FIR, the accused told him to “remember how he was beaten earlier.” Along with sections of the IPC, sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Prevention Act have also been imposed against the accused.

Complete case of thrashing in Una

On July 11, 2016, Vashram, his brother Ramesh and cousins ??Bechar and Ashok Sarvaiya were publicly stripped naked by so-called cow vigilantes. Everyone was tied to the car and beaten with sticks. Because they were skinning the cow. The cow protectors had accused him of killing the cow. The victims told them that they worked as skinners, yet they were beaten up. After this incident, there were demonstrations for several days in different parts of Gujarat and the country.

Later, the victims, their families and many people from the Dalit community had converted to Buddhism. All the victims are residents of Mota Samdhiyala village in Gir Somnath district. In April 2018, a religious conversion program took place in this village. One of the victims, Ramesh Sarvaiya, then told the media that he converted to Buddhism because of caste discrimination.

Attack victims again

On 25 April 2018, Una victims Ramesh and Ashok Sarvaiya alleged that they were attacked again. This attack was done by Kiran Singh Balubhai, one of the accused in the 2016 incident. During that time also the victims were threatened. A case was also registered against Kiran Singh at Una police station.

More than 40 people were arrested after the incident. In August 2018, the hearing of the case started in the court. Later most of the people got bail. In July this year, the Gujarat High Court granted bail to the four main accused, Ramesh Jadhav, Pramodgiri Goswami, Balvantgiri Goswami and Rakesh Joshi. The main accused were granted bail on the condition that they cannot come within the limits of Gir Somnath district except for coming to the court.

Courtesy : The Lallantop

Note: This news piece was originally published in thelallantop.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights .