EVEN AS the district sessions court of Gir Somnath at Veraval on Tuesday sentenced five persons convicted in the 2016 case of public flogging in Una to five years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each, the court raised questions over the conduct of the complainant and victims in the case and ordered to give them Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography – Satya na Prayogo – as compensation under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) “to enable them to come out of the mental trauma and to counter injustice within the limits of the law.”
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Jignesh Pandya had, on Monday, convicted five persons and acquitted 35 others while pronouncing its judgment in the case that was reported from Una in Gir Somnath district on July 11, 2016.
The five were convicted for charges like voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons, wrongful confinement and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace and humiliating the members of the Scheduled Caste communities under the provisions of the IPC and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act commonly known as Atrocity Act.
On Monday, the court announced their punishment while awarding them maximum sentence of rigorous imprisonment for five years and fine of Rs 5000 each. A senior lawyer connected with the case said that as all the five convicts have spent more than five years in jail as undertrial prisoners, they are likely to get a set-off against the sentence.
The five convicts include Ramesh Jadav, Rakesh Joshi, Nagjibhai Vaniya, Pramodgiri Gausvami and Balvantgiri Gausvami.
In its judgment, however, the court has raised questions over the conduct of the complainant and the victims in the case, while discussing the aspect of awarding compensation to the victims under the provisions of Section 395 of BNSS.
The court has observed, “The objective of this section is to rehabilitate the victim. Therefore, at the time of ordering compensation, victims’ social and financial condition and established conduct should be taken into consideration.”
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The court then cited several instances on the basis of evidence before it to discuss the conduct of the victims.
The court noted, “The complainant’s father, Balubhai, personally sat in the ambulance and went to Gir-Gadhada Hospital for treatment. Despite this, four days after the incident, he gave a statement stating that “My head started bleeding. I became unconscious within a short time, and when I regained consciousness, I was in the government hospital.” In reality, this has never happened.”
The court also noted that although the physical condition of the complainant and his brothers (all victims) was not life-threatening at the relevant time, dying declarations of all four of them and their father Balubhai were recorded on the seventh day of the incident.
“…an attempt was made to depict a picture that their condition was such that could result in death,” the court observed.
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The court has also mentioned that all the major medical reports of the victims had returned normal at Rajkot hospital and were discharged on July 26, 2016. However, the very next day, they went to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital for treatment.
“Based on their complaints of pain, and in an effort to diagnose the cause, tests such as X-ray, ECG, MRI Brain, and CT scans were conducted, all of which returned normal. From this, it can be inferred that despite having recovered, they intentionally got admitted to the Ahmedabad hospital and attempted to portray their condition as critical to the public through various media,” the court observed in the judgment.
It further said, “As a result, the Dalit community felt immense shock, and 23 individuals from the community attempted self-immolation by consuming poison, as noted in the charge sheet. Out of these, one person had died, as per the chargesheet. Thus, due to the conduct of the complainant, emotional members of the Dalit community were incited to attempt self-immolation… Additionally, approximately 74 other offenses were committed in connection with this incident. It seems that the victims made no effort to understand the pain of other members of their own Dalit community.”
The court has also mentioned that the evidence of the complainant should be recorded in the beginning of the trial itself, but it could not be done due to him (Vashram Sarvaiya, the complainant in the case). And he appeared for evidence on October 12, 2023 and the evidence of his brother Becharbhai was recorded on January 12, 2026, the court further noted.
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It then observed, “Despite this, the complainant has propagated through all forums and media that, even after many years, they have been deprived of justice before the court…that justice is not being served due to delays. And by doing so (he has) attempted to damage the reputation of the court. The complainant himself gave evidence on 12.10.2023, and another victim-witness, Becharbhai, gave evidence on 12.01.2026. The court then pronounced the judgment on 16.03.2026. Yet, misinformation was spread that justice gets delayed in courts.”
The court also noted that mental trauma cannot be measured in terms of money while considering compensation. It noted that the state government paid Rs 3 lakh to the victims as compensation apart from a total amount of Rs 21 lakh by political parties and organisations.
“…the mental trauma and other sufferings one has endured can only be changed by one’s vichardhara (ideology). And unless there is a change in one’s vichardhara, his overall situation cannot change,” the court observed.
“Since the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi remain relevant even in the present times to improve the overall condition of the complainant and the victims regarding the injustice they have faced, to come out of the mental trauma, and to enable them to counter injustice within the limits of the law…it would be justified to order the District Legal Services Authority, Veraval, to provide them with Mahatma Gandhi’s book, ‘Satya na Prayogo’ through the District Legal Services Authority, Veraval, as a form of compensation under Section 395 of the BNSS,” the court ordered.
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It further observed in the context, “The accused too have taken the law into their own hands to achieve their social objective and have committed atrocities against the victims. They, too, should be given this book. However, since there is no provision in this section to provide compensation to the accused, such an order cannot be passed in that regard.”
In its final order, the court has ordered to send a copy of the judgment to the District Legal Services Authority of Gir Somnath among others.
