A Dalit man was allegedly flogged to death by five persons at Rajkot in Gujarat.
Identified as Mukesh Vania, a rag picker, the man was tied to a pole and beaten mercilessly by five persons, who mistook him for a thief at a factory in the Rajkot Industrial Area. He died later at the Rajkot Civil Hospital.
Following the incident, the police arrested five persons, including the factory owner and booked under law on atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Mevani condemns
“Mr. Mukesh Vaniya belonging to a Scheduled Caste was miserably thrashed and murdered by factory owners in Rajkot, and his wife was brutally beaten up,” Gujarat’s independent MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani tweeted, condemning the incident.
He described the Rajkot incident as worse than the Una flogging case and said that lawlessness prevailed in Gujarat. “This is a far more gruesome incident than [that in] Una. In Una, the victims were beaten up and humiliated. Whereas, here a man lost his life amidst caste violence... The government of Gujarat has still not learned from its past mistakes,” Mr Mevani wrote on Facebook.
The whole incident was caught on CCTV. Later the footage went viral, sparking protests by Dalit groups.
The State authorities immediately swung into action and announced a compensation of ₹8.5 lakh to the victim’s family with the assurance that the accused would not be spared.
