Ahmedabad, May 21: A Dalit man, identified as 40-year-old Mukesh Vaniya, was flogged to death by workers of a factory in Gujarat's Rajkot. Legislator Jignesh Mevani shared a clip on Twitter which showed Vaniya being beaten up with sticks and rods by at least two men.
The incident happened on Sunday morning, when Vaniya, a ragpicker, entered a factory in Shapar industrial area of Rajkot, along with his wife Jaya and another woman Savita. The trio were caught by factory workers after they began collecting trash.
While Jaya and Savita were abused and beaten with belts, Vaniya was thrashed till he felt unconscious. The attackers continued the assault, relenting only after Jaya called fellow ragpickers on the site.
Here is the video of the Dalit man being tied up and flogged:
'Mr. Mukesh Vaniya belonging to a scheduled caste was miserably thrashed and murdered by factory owners in Rajkot and his wife was brutally beaten up'.#GujaratIsNotSafe4Dalit pic.twitter.com/ffJfn7rNSc
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) May 20, 2018
On being rushed to the Rajkot Civil Hospital at 9:00 am, Vaniya was declared dead on arrival.
The Rajkot police has registered an FIR in the case at 2:20 pm on Sunday. The attackers have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder). A search operation has been launched to nab them.
Considering the sensitivity of the matter, the government has acted swiftly, appointing DySP D M Chauhan as the special officer to solve the case.
The Rajkot incident comes nearly a couple of years after seven Dalits were publicly shamed and flogged in Saurashtra's Una for skinning a dead cow. The incident had sparked a massive outrage, with thousands of Dalits marching upto Ahmedabad and demanding the resignation of the then CM Anandiben Patel.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2018 10:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).