Gujarat: Upper Caste Group Thrashes Dalit Man, Mother For Wearing 'Good Clothes, Sunglasses'

A group of upper caste people allegedly beat up a Dalit man named Jigar Shekhalia for wearing good clothes and sunglasses, said the police.

Officials said that the victim Jigar Shekhalia and his mother, who was also assaulted by the group, were sent to a hospital for treatment.

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A group of people from the upper caste community allegedly thrashed a Dalit man, identified as Jigar Shekhalia, on Tuesday night for "wearing good clothes and sunglasses", said the police. The incident took place at Mota village in Palanpur taluka of the Banaskantha district of Gujarat and surfaced in the media on Thursday, reported news agency PTI. Police said that the victim and his mother, who was also assaulted by the group, were sent to a hospital for treatment.

A First Information Report (FIR) was filed against seven persons on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim Shekhalia at Gadh police station, reported PTI.

Several charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections pertaining to rioting, unlawful assembly, outraging the modesty of a woman, voluntarily causing hurt, using abusive language, etc have been invoked in the FIR.

The accused were also booked under the relevant sections of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, the police said no arrest has been made in connection with the incident so far.

Shekhalia has accused the men involved in the incident of beating him and his mother as they were upset with him for wearing good clothes and goggles. According to the complaint copy, one of the seven accused approached the victim when he was standing outside his house on Tuesday morning.

Later, the accused started abusing the victim and also threatened to kill him. The accused said that he was "flying too high these days", reported PTI.

On the same night, when the complainant was standing outside a village temple, six accused from the community with Rajput surnames came towards him. They were all armed with sticks and they asked him why he was dressed up and wore sunglasses. Subsequently, they started thrashing and dragging him behind a dairy parlour.

Later, when the victim's mother came to save him, the accused people also started attacking her. After tearing the mother’s clothes, they later threatened to kill her, said the police as reported by PTI.

In a separate incident that took place on May 28 and surfaced in the media on Wednesday, a woman was allegedly stripped, abused and beaten up in full public view by a group of people in  Gujarat’s Dahod district. 

After the video of the incident went viral, the police arrested the woman’s estranged husband, who was also involved in the incident, along with three others. The woman’s estranged husband was upset as she was living separately from him and their four children for the last one-and-a-half years, reported PTI.

The husband and the two others accused in the case allegedly kidnapped the woman from Rampura village in the district.  Later, they took her to Margala village, where the incident occurred, a Sukhsar police station official said.