A 25-year-old scheduled caste youth was allegedly beaten to death reportedly on suspicion of theft in a village in Banaskantha district in north Gujarat.
The police have arrested six of the accused from the upper caste community of the village who allegedly kidnapped the victim and beat him to death.
Police said that the dead body of Pintu Galchar, 25, was found lying naked on a roadside near a bus stand at Ravi village in Dhanera taluka on Friday morning. There were blunt injury marks all over the body suggesting severe beating, leading to this death. They said that the accused kidnapped Galchar from his house on Thursday night and dumped his dead body at the spot after allegedly killing him.
According to the FIR lodged by Galchar's brother Sanjay, six persons of the village had come to his house at 10 PM on Thursday and forcefully took away Pintu in a tempo. The FIR states that Pintu never came back home and his phone remained switched off. On Friday morning, his dead body was found lying naked near the bus stand of the village. Sanjay has alleged that his brother was beaten to death by the six accused and dragged near the bus stand where he was dumped.
The accused have been identified as Hansraj Y Purohit, Chetan D Purohit, Ramabhai B Purohit, Ramabhai K Purohit, Kirti M Purohit and Gautam J Purohit. They all have been arrested for murder, kidnapping and various sections of atrocity act.
"The accused suspected Galchar of stealing Rs 5,000 about a week back and it was for this reason that they took him away for questioning. They beat him up and after finding that he was dead, they left him at the spot where the dead body was found today morning. We are awaiting a postmortem report to know more about the cause of death but prima facie it seems that the victim was beaten up. He had blunt injuries on his body," District Superintendent of Police Tarun Duggal told DH over phone.
According to sources, the main accused Hansraj is husband of village sarpanch but "works like actual sarpanch locally known as Sarpanch Pati." They said that "One of the accused who reportedly lost Rs 5000 took the matter to 'Sarpanch Pati' Hansraj who planned to question Galchar with other accused. As per the plan, they picked up Galchar and thrashed him for a confession which turned fatal."
The village, dominated by upper-caste Brahmin community, remained tense throughout the day following the incident. Security has been deployed in the village in apprehension of any flare ups. Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda tweeted while seeking action against the culprit that "Galchar was killed, stripped and dragged by the accused in the village as if there is no fear of law and order among the culprits."
Published 17 July 2020, 16:30 IST