Six arrested in Gujarat for assaulting Dalit family over visiting village temple

The Kutch police on Saturday arrested six persons for allegedly assaulting a Dalit family, reportedly for visiting newly-inaugurated Ram temple in the village.

After the incident was highlighted by several leaders, including independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, who demanded action against the accused, the state government announced Rs 21 lakh ex-gratia to the victims' family.

"We have arrested six persons so far and two are under surveillance in the hospital where they are admitted. The victims have stated in the FIR that they were attacked for visiting the newly-inaugurated village temple. I won't be able to say for sure what led to the assault as we are yet to catch other accused to get other version," said Superintendent of Police, Kutch (east), Mayur Patil.

On October 26, two incidents occurred at Ner village in Bhachau taluka. Patil told reporters that in the first incident, a group of 20 accused attacked relatives of the victims' family for resisting cattle which had entered their farm about 4 km away from the village. The accused persons thrashed Govind Vaghela and his uncle Ganesh for resisting. The duo escaped and came back home.

Later, the same group came to Govind's house in the village holding axes, sticks and rods and assaulted the family members including his father Jagabhai, 64, his wife Baddiben, son Bhura and nephew Hasmukh. Several videos of the victims in pool of blood have gone viral on social media platforms.

The victims' family has alleged that it was part of the conspiracy by the accused who were against their community visiting the temple earlier this month. The police have registered two separate FIRs against 20 accused for attempt to murder, conspiracy and sections Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (prevention of atrocities) Act.

Police said that earlier this month, one of the victims, Jagabhai, had complained that upper caste villagers were not accepting his contribution for the temple. Jagabhai was pacified by the village leaders, saying that donations had already been collected seven years ago when temple construction began and there was no need for further donation.

"Then, Jagabhai told the villagers that he wanted to visit the temple for darshan. The villagers accepted it and he visited the temple during pran-pratishtha ceremony. A week later, his family members were assaulted in two separate incidents for which we have registered FIRs,"Patil told reporters.

"Now, these cases are being presented in media and social media as upper caste vs SC community or village vs one SC house which is, perhaps, far from facts. I would like to say that three to four years back Jagabhai won an election with 80% votes in the village and every community voted for him. Jagabhai is a respected panchayat member. So, to say that entire village is against a community or a caste is far from the facts. As far as legal actions are concerned, we have already arrested six of the accused," he said while adding that 12 different teams have been formed to nab other accused.

Meanwhile, Gujarat government announced financial assistance of Rs 21 lakh to the six victims and while stating that "necessary steps are being taken."

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