Una Dalit flogging: HC orders state to give video footage to victim

The Gujarat High Court on Monday ordered the state government to provide the entire set of evidence, including CCTV footage and video clippings, to the victims of the Una flogging case.

One of the Dalit victims had approached the court seeking the records after the trial court rejected his requests twice.

Justice Samir Dave passed the order allowing the petitioner Vasram Sarvaiya to get a copy of the entire set of evidence produced in the court and which has been relied upon by the prosecution. Justice Dave passed the order after public prosecutor Mitesh Amin said the state had no objection.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Megha Jani told the court that the trial court had rejected the application twice. "I am the complainant and the victim. This is the incident which has attained this magnitude because of the electronic evidence," Jani told the court.

She argued that ordinarily, the petitioner being the victim, should have been given all the case records without any application under the special atrocity law.

The trial of the case has been pending since 2018 before the special trial court in Veraval court in Gir Somnath district. As per the high court order, the special court has to wrap up the trial by September. There are 34 accused facing trial for attempted murder, kidnapping, rioting and various sections of the atrocity act.

They are accused of stripping the victims, including petitioner Sarvaiya and beating them in full public view in Una town for skinning a dead cow, which was killed, as police investigation showed, by an Asiatic lioness. The accused claimed to be self-proclaimed gau rakshaks or cow vigilantes. The incident happened in 2016. So far, the trial court has examined 144 witnesses out of 338.