On July 14, following a dispute over a plot of land in Samadhiyala village of Chuda taluka in Surendranagar district, six men from the Kshatriya community and a mob of about 15 people were booked for allegedly injuring and murdering two Dalit brothers as well as hurting four others, including three women, the previous evening. As per the post mortem report of the two Dalit brothers, done by a government hospital in Surendranagar town, the two deceased have been identified as Aaljibhai Parmar, aged 60, and Manoj, aged 54, a report by the Indian Express stated.
On July 14, a First Information Report (FIR), based on the complaint made by Parul Khodabhai Parmar (60), was filed at Chuda police station in Surendranagar district. The perpetrators of this horrible act were identified by Parul in her complaint as Amra Khachar, Amra’s brother Nagbhai, Amra’s sons Jilu alias Ghugha and Manglu, Bhikhu Khacahar, one Bhanbhai of Samadhiyala village, and a mob of 12 to 15 people.
Details of the incident based on the FIR filed:
On July 12, at around 4 p.m., in Samadhiyala village in Chuda taluka, Surendranagar district, the accused assaulted four members of a Dalit family and a tractor driver, also a Dalit, who had been hired by them. The FIR was filed several hours later. Premji Parmar, a local of Chuda’s Samadhiyala village, was listed as the owner of land there in the FIR. However, his four sons, Khodabhai, Aaljibhai, Amrutbhai and Manoj had moved out of the village around forty years ago and settled in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar cities.
The 60-year-old Parul, the widow of Aalji’s older brother Khodabhai, claimed in her complaint that the accused, Kathi Darbars, had been attempting to take the Parmar family’s land for a long time and had been threatening the Dalit family, which had resulted in legal action. On the victim’s property on Wednesday night, Kathi Darbars—Kashtriyas who are also designated as Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in Gujarat—attacked Parul, Aalji, Shanta, Manoj, and Nandini. It is essential to note here that in the state of Gujarat, Dalit’s are given a position considerably lower on the socioeconomic scale than the Kathi Darbars.
The five family members and Dalpat Parmar, a tractor driver from the Tuva village that the family had hired for tilling operations, were attempting to leave their farm and return to Ahmedabad on Thursday after tilling it between 10 AM and 4 PM when the accused rushed in and told the Dalit’s to leave, claiming the land belonged to them. The accused began by smashing the Dalit family’s car before indiscriminately and mercilessly attacking the Dalit’s with rods and scythes. It has also been provided in the FIR that in order to build a barbed wire fence around their farm, Aaljibhai and Manoj were carrying Rs. 1 lakh in cash apiece, which was also stolen by the accused.
Furthermore, the assailants also vandalised CCTV cameras installed on the farm, snatched away victims’ phones and threw chilli powder in Nandini’s eyes, as per the report of the Indian Express.
According to the FIR, Dalpat somehow managed to dial emergency services and called three ambulances to Samadhiyala even as Nandini managed to dial 100 and sought police help.
The injured were rushed to a hospital in Surendranagar town where Aaljibhai and Manoj succumbed to their injuries, police said, as per the report of the Indian Express.
Sections used in the FIR filed:
As reported by the Indian Expressed, based on Parul’s complaint, Chuda police has now booked the six and the mob under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder), 306 (dacoity with murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means or weapons), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 335 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt on provocation), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs50), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 506(2) (criminal intimidation), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace). The following IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting by persons armed with deadly weapons), 149 (every member of an unlawful assembly to be treated as guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) were also used by the police against the accused in the said FIR. Additionally, the accused have also been booked under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for subjecting members of the Scheduled Caste to atrocities.
As reported by the Indian Express, Haresh Dudhat, superintendent of police of Surendranagar said that “We have registered an FIR in connection with the double murders. Accused are on the run presently but efforts are being made to name them.”
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