The Special Atrocity Court in Amreli district on Thursday directed the police to submit the FSL report on the cause of death of Mahesh Premji Rathod before it on May 1 to help decide whether murder charges be included in the FIR, which was filed against seven persons for allegedly thrashing him following an argument over “wasting food”.
Rathod, a 24-year-old Dalit man from Gopalgram village of Amreli, had collapsed on the floor of Shantabaa General Hospital and died on April 20 during treatment, three days after he was allegedly assaulted by about seven men at the free-food counter of an organisation on the premises of the hospital.
His family has refused to take his body for final rites since, and has been protesting outside the hospital demanding that murder sections be added against the accused.
Seven persons have been booked for the assault, and sections of rioting and unlawful assembly for allegedly repeatedly hitting Rathod with plastic pipes on April 17.
Speaking to The Indian Express, advocate Navchetan Parmar, who is representing the family, said, “The court of judge D S Shrivastava instructed the investigation officer to take this up as a special case and urgently seek the report from the FSL about the cause of death of Mahesh Rathod and submit it in court on May 1.”
D S Shrivastava is the 4th Additional District & Sessions Judge in Amreli who presided over the Special Atrocity Court.
Investigating officer DySP Chirag Desai of Amreli Division told The Indian Express, “We informed the court that we do not know the cause of death of Mahesh Rathod as the FSL report is still pending. The court has given us time to present the report on May 1. We will be writing a priority letter to the Forensic Science department of Sir Takhtasinhji Civil Hospital in Bhavnagar.”
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7 booked for April 17 attack
On April 17, Mahesh Rathod, who worked as a rector at Gyan Shakti School in Dhari, had taken his septuagenarian uncle to Shantabaa General Hospital in Amreli town, which is about 32 km from their village Gopalgram. After admitting his uncle to the hospital, Mahesh Rathod went to get some lunch and saw that an organisation was serving food free-of-cost to families and caregivers, behind the hospital building and sat to eat. According to the FIR filed on the basis of the complaint of Rathod, he could not eat the dal-rice and was feeling nauseous, so he decided to throw the rest of the food. When Bharat Acharya, the head of the organisation, saw him “wasting food”, he allegedly asked Rathod to finish the food or pay a fine of Rs 50. The FIR stated that Rathod told Acharya that he would pay the fine. Rathod stated that he gave a Rs 500 currency note as he did not have any change. Acharya then refused to return the balance amount and allegedly asked Rathod about his caste and village, according to the complaint. When Rathod told him that he was a Dalit, Acharya allegedly called three men from his group and asked them to thrash Rathod, the FIR said, quoting the complainant.
Rathod, in his complaint, claimed that four persons kept beating him with plastic pipes all over his body. Three other men also joined in thrashing him, breaking his left hand, the FIR said. His family admitted him to the trauma centre of the same hospital.
The Amreli city police booked Bharat Acharya, Kalu Sohaliya, Heera Khuman, Chatur Dafda and three others under BNS sections for voluntarily causing grievous hurt, unlawful assembly, and rioting, along with sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act and the Gujarat Police Act. However, police officials said the accused were not arrested since all the sections invoked against them invite a punishment of less than seven years.
Family to continue protest, at village
While the panel postmortem of Rathod was completed on April 21, the family has refused to receive his body for final rites. On Thursday, they reiterated that they would not receive the body till they get justice for Rathod. Their protest, which was at the hospital till April 23, will now continue at their village, said Premji Rathod, father of the deceased, on Thursday.
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The Indian Express had earlier spoken to Kishor Amra Rathod, cousin of the deceased, who had said that the protest would continue till they got justice for his brother.The Indian Express attempted to reach out to the main accused Bharat Acharya over call but he remained unavailable for comment. Similarly, multiple officials of Shantabaa General Hospital also remained unavailable for comment.
