Dalit activists seek FIR, arrest of police officials

A group of Dalit activists in Gujarat sought an FIR against police officers, and preventive arrests of those who "threatened to kill Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani".

Representatives of organisations such as Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, Dalit Muslim Ekta Manch and Hamari Awaz on Saturday submitted a memorandum to Gujarat DGP to this effect.

They were acting after Jignesh Mevani, legislator from Vadgaam in North Gujarat and Dalit leader, raised an alarm and levied allegations on his twitter handle quoting a discussion between two Ahmedabad police officials in a WhatsApp group.

He had tweeted: "Jignesh Mevani's encounter? Here is the link to a web portal which exposes a Whatsapp communication where two top cops are discussing how I could be killed in an encounter. Can you believe this?".

Mevani was referrring to a communication between two police officers in a WhatsApp group 'ADR Police & Media' , which is said to have several members of the Gujarat Police and media as its members.

Apparently, two videos were posted in the group recently.

In one video, a group of policemen were seen reportedly thrashing a person looking like a politician and the other video carried out an interview of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in which  he is said to be defending the state police in relation to recent encounters carried out in his state.

The two videos were followed by a message by a DySP-ranked police official, which read: "Those who seek to become the 'baap' (fathers) of police, refer to police as 'lakhota' (marbles) and those who seek to take videos of police should remember that with people like you, the police will be like this. Scores will be settled - Gujarat Police."

The statement perhaps relates to a February 18 incident, where a video showing Mevani entering into a verbal altercation with Ahmedabad policemen, during the process of his detention, went viral.

He was put in detention just before he was to kickstart his call for Ahmedabad bandh in a protest against the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar.

The message by the DySP was soon followed by his senior who shared a few 'smiley' icons in response.

The activists have now sought to register an FIR under the Cyber Crime law and state that they "hope" that the DGP will take proper action and "will assure to the people of Gujarat, in future, that the police will act under the law without any discrimination."