Una flogging: Seven years later, Dalit vicfor promised land, jobs

The family has made several representations to the social justice depathem away, citing the lack of a written record of the promises made bAnandiben Patel

Damayantee Dhar

Seven years after the horrific 2016 Una flogging incident in Gujarat that shook the nation, seven the upper caste violence, are yet to receive the land and jobs promised by the then Anandiben PatAshok Sarvaiya, one of the seven Dalit victims, said in his petition filed before a trial court in Gureceived a portion of the ex-gratia from the social justice department, the agrarian land and governot been delivered.”

The family has made several representations to the social justice department, who turned them awrecord of the promises made by the then CM.

On their plight, Sarvaiya told The Federal, “We don’t live in our village anymore for safety reasoour traditional work of skinning dead cows. We’ve been surviving on money doled out by variousome NGOs.”

Furthermore, he said that Anandiben Patel, then chief minister who visited them in Una, had assubut that has not been fulfilled.

Advocate Govind Parmar, the lawyer, who is representing the victims told The Federal that the Apromised five acres of land for each victim and government jobs as per their qualification. But, ththe state has been turning them down on the grounds that there is no written record of these promAfter waiting for seven years, Ashok Sarvaiya, one of the victims, has filed a statement before th(Gir Somnath district), said Parmar, adding that he is also representing the other victims as well.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that the Una flogging incident victims have called out the BJP governmepromises.

In November 2018, the family wrote a letter to the then-President Ram Nath Kovind seeking euthpractice cow skinning, the work passed on to us for generations. We have not been able to go bacsafety. The government is yet to provide us with security, land and jobs as promised,” Vashram Sletter on behalf of his family had stated.

The family had then sat on indefinite hunger strike in front of the home of a BJP MP Kirit Solankguard personnel was deployed at the family’s rented home in Una town prompting them to take bAttacked again

However, despite police protection, Ramesh Sarvaiya and his cousin Ashok Sarvaiya, two of the incident, were attacked in April 2018 by the prime accused out on bail. Subsequently, an FIR wasaccused Kiransinh Darbar and his friend in the Una police station.

The course of the case in the last seven years

In December 2016, a chargesheet was filed in the Una flogging case and forty-three men were lis34, including Kiransinh Darbar, one of the six prime accused in the case were charged under sectmurder), IPC 397 (robbery), IPC 365 (kidnapping), IPC 355 (assault to dishonour a person), IPC In response, the state did provide security personnel for the public prosecutor but did not respondthe issue of security concerns of the Sarvaiya family and the witnesses.

Advocate Dipendra Yadav told The Federal that he has been provided with security but he doesn’by the government. He travels about 100 km every week from his residence in Junagarh district tGir Somnath district. In the absence of an office, he has been preparing the witnesses in the lobbyrisky.

“Besides, the witnesses have to be provided with security. Over the years of the trial, there have bwho are out on bail have driven the witnesses in their own car to court,” pointed out Parmar. In defence of the accused

In 2022, arguing for bail of the four prime accused who were arrested in 2016, lawyer BM Mansucourt, “The cow vigilantes thought that the men were from the minority community. It was neverthey knew they were Dalits instead.”

However, the court denied the four prime accused bail on the ground that they had initiated and sthe crowd had just followed them.

Public outrage

The public flogging of the Dalit men by vigilantes for skinning a dead cow had sparked a state-wof the massive protests across Gujarat and neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Madhya PradeshCongress’s Rahul Gandhi and BSP’s Mayawati had paid the family a visit while they were admitted in the district hospital.

Courtesy : The Federal

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