A sessions court in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district on Monday convicted five persons and acquitted 35 others in connection with a 2016 case in which seven Dalits were assaulted in the town of Una, The Indian Express reported.
Additional Sessions Judge Jignesh Pandya of the court in Veraval convicted Ramesh Jadav, Rakesh Joshi, Nagjibhai Vaniya, Pramodgiri Gausvami and Balvantgiri Gausvami. The court will pronounce the punishment on Tuesday.
On July 11, 2016, more than 40 men from the upper caste Darbar community had assaulted seven members of the Sarvaiya family for skinning a dead cow in Una town in the district. The Sarvaiyas were leather tanners and skinning dead cattle was part of their traditional occupation.
However, the assailants accused them of cow slaughter.
During the attack, four of the Sarvaiya brothers were stripped, tied to the back of a car and beaten with sticks and iron rods, while some of the attackers filmed the assault.
The Criminal Investigation Department, which investigated the case, had filed charges against 41 persons, The Indian Express reported.
The charges included attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, attempting to cause grievous hurt, dacoity, kidnapping, assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, wrongful confinement, rioting, unlawful assembly, among other offences.
Provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act and the Information Technology Act were also invoked.
Among the 41 accused facing trial were four police officers from the Una police station. One of these officers, former police inspector Nirmalsinh Zala, died during trial. The other three have been acquitted.
VC Mavadhiya, one of the defence lawyers in the case, told The Indian Express on Monday that the five men accused in the case have been convicted under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons or means and criminal intimidation.
They were also convicted under Section 3(1)(10) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act. This section is related to the intentional insult, intimidation or caste-based abuse against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes members.
Noting that several persons had been accused in the case, Mavadhiya also told the newspaper that the prosecution could not establish who did what either in its complaint or in its testimony before the court.
“Therefore, the court has not found the offence against the rest of the accused proved,” The Indian Express quoted the lawyer as saying.
Vashram Sarvaiya described the ruling as “sad” and said that it will be challenged in the Gujarat High Court.
Also read: How the Una protests reflect Ambedkar’s great wisdom in the Constituent Assembly
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