Hate Watch: Dalit man assaulted by upper caste members in Vadodara, Gujarat

A video of a Dalit man being publicly assaulted and abused by a group of upper caste men has been making the rounds on social media. The video only shows a man being beaten by a group of people, two of which were hitting him with belts. This incident was reported from Vadodara, Gujarat.

The Dalit man was being assaulted on a busy road, as vehicles can be seen crossing in the video. The video was uploaded on December 23, 2022, and can be seen here:

As reported by the PTI, a police investigation into the alleged assault of a Dalit youth has now started in Gujarat’s Vadodara, after the video went viral. According to the police, the video is from December 11, 2022 when a group of seven upper caste men, who are yet to be identified, assaulted the complainant with a leather belt and sticks while he was with an upper caste woman friend.

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The FIR was filed by the victim on December 22, 2022 at the Taluka Police station in the Vadodara district. According to the complaint, 24-year-old Alpesh Parmar (Vankar) was assaulted on December 11 around 3.30 p.m. while conversing with a female friend who belonged to a higher caste community beside the Narmada Canal on the Bhayli-Sevasi Road. Parmar also said in his complaint that he was assaulted and verbally abused over his caste by seven men and some of them even hit him with a belt, without any provocation.

According to Parmar’s complaint, he had made a 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.

But he later decided to file an FIR on December 22 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 the slogan ‘Jai Rajputana’

The police, however, said that seven men had accused Parmar of stalking a girl, as was reported by the Times of India.

Four out of the seven accused have been arrested by the police, as reported by the times of India. The accused have been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for unlawful assembly (s. 143), rioting (s. 147), every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of the prosecution of the common object (s. 149), punishment for voluntarily causing hurt (s. 323), criminal intimidation [s. 506(2)], and uttering obscene words in a public place [s. 294(B)] as well as sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The police is investigating the reason behind the assault.

Jignesh Mevani, the MLA and working president of the Gujarat Congress and a prominent Dalit, posted a video of the said assault and described it as 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.

The tweet can be viewed here:

Image Courtesy: indianexpress.com

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