A sessions court in Gandhinagar sentenced nine men to five years imprisonment for stopping a dalit groom from riding a horse at his wedding procession in Gandhinagar district's Parsa village. The incident had occurred in 2018, when the accused persons, belonging to the Darbar community, had forced the groom to take police protection to complete the procession.
The sessions judge S N Solanki held all nine accused guilty of criminal intimidation, wrongful restraint, unlawful assembly and under sections of the atrocity act. The court found accused Natwarsinh J Parmar, Kuldeepsinh D Rathod, Devendrasinh N Chavda, Vijaysinh B Chauhan, Vipul B Chauhan, Jigarsinh B Chauhan, Naresh Chauhan and Virendrasinh R Chauhan, all residents of Parsa village, guilty and sentenced them to five years in jail. The public prosecutor in this case P D Vyas confirmed the development and said that the copy of judgement is awaited.
Vyas said that prosecution examined 18 witnesses during the trial and based on other material evidence, the sessions judge found all the accused guilty of offence. Apart from a five years jail term, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of the accused. Vyas said that all the accused are in judicial custody.
On June 17, 2018, Mehsana resident Prashant Solanki was riding a horse in his wedding procession, locally known as "varghodo" in Parsa village in Gandhinagar. On his way to the bride's home, a group of people from the Darbar community stopped the procession, threatening that only people from "courageous" castes like Darbars, can ride a horse." Following the ruckus, police were called at the spot who escorted the procession to the bride's place. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against nine accused.
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