The funeral procession of a 32 year old Swetang Patel who allegedly died in police custody in the wake of Patidar quota violence was held in Ahmedabad amid super tight security. Swetang's funeral procession started from his house in Bapunagar, joined by over 300 locals along with his mother Prabhaben and sister Palak.
Anticipating another round of scuffle, the government had deployed around 600 personnel from local police, State Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force and Central Police Force along the one km route from the deceased’s house till the crematorium. All the arrangements were scrutinised and supervised by high-ranking police officers.
“It is very unfortunate that this death took place. We demand action against the culprits,” said a local resident. Swetang was allegedly taken away by the police on August 25, and beaten up until he ultimately succumbed to his injuries. The Gujarat High Court had ordered an autopsy of his body which revealed he had died of a severe head injury.
As the procession moved along, a large number of people joined in to pay homage, pushing the crowd count to almost 1,000. Police stopped traffic for almost 20 minutes to avoid confusion. “The procession reached peacefully at the crematorium without any untoward incident. We have not imposed any curfew in the area. Locals have also cooperated and refrained from shouting any inflammatory slogans,” police inspector K D Nakum said. Last rites were performed by sister Palak as Swetang was the only son in the family.
Prabhaben has vowed to fight for justice. She said, “I demand suspension of all the responsible police officers. They must be given life imprisonment for killing my son. I will fight till the end to get justice.” Palak said, “We are not given any assurance of any kind from the government yet. No one from the government has approached us.”
The youth's death is one of the many examples of police brutality that was up on display during the reservation agitation. The state high court ordered a CID probe and directed the administration to file an FIR after the autopsy showed it was a clear case of homicide. So far, 9 policemen, including 2 inspectors and a sub-inspector, have been booked for the alleged custodial death. Assistant Commissioner of Police K D Pandya named P D Parmar and R R Vasava of Bapunagar among the others. However, the victim's family advocate said the FIR did not mention names of all the police officials involved in the death.
“We had demanded that all those responsible be named, but they (police) did not register an FIR as per our demand and left out many high ranking officials, including ACP. We do not want to make lower ranked policemen a scapegoat in the case,” advocate B M Mangukia told reporters. “We sat in the police station for about five hours to register an FIR…. This is non-compliance of the high court order and a contempt of court as well.”
