The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Gujarat government, seeking a report from the chief secretary over reports of a Dalit ragpicker being fatally beaten by five people. The commission issued a statement saying, “The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of media report that a 40 year old Dalit ragpicker was beaten to death at Shapar village in Rajkot district on 20 May, allegedly over the issue of collecting scraps in the area.”
Victim Mukesh Vaniya and his wife Jayaben were picking through garbage near Radadiya Industries in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) area, when they were allegedly beaten by five mean, including the owner of the factory. While Vaniya was beaten to death, his wife was roughed up. A video of the incident shows two men taking turns to beat Vaniya with a stick while another person holds him by a rope tied to his waist, has spread through social media. Police officials have arrested the accused based on the video. All of them have been booked under the SC/ST Prevention Atrocities (POA) Act and sections of the IPC relating to murder, assaulting a woman and wrongful confinement. Gujarat Dalit leader and MLA Jignesh Mevani has taken up the case on social media.
In a Facebook post, he wrote, “This is far more gruesome incident than Una. In Una, the victims were beaten up and humiliated. Whereas, here a man lost his life amidst caste violence. While, Vaniya belonging to a Scheduled Caste was miserably thrashed and murdered by factory owners in Rajkot, his wife was brutally beaten up. The government of Gujarat has still not learned from its past mistakes.” The state government has announced compensation of Rs 8.5 Lakh to the Vaniya's family and assured that the guilty won't be spared.
