Dalit woman ‘abused, dragged by hair’ from garba event in Gujarat’s Mahisagar; 4 booked

The complainant said she was assaulted and prevented from filming the incident, which occurred in Bharodi village on Friday night.

Written by Aditi Raja

Vadodara | September 29, 2025 06:11 PM IST

3 min read

In the FIR, the complainant stated that Loma Patel, Roshni Patel and Vrushti Patel first chastised her for joining the event and “began abusing and humiliating her”. (File)

The Mahisagar district police in Gujarat booked four women from Bharodi village in Virpur taluka for allegedly humiliating and abusing a Dalit woman and dragging her by the hair from a village garba event on Friday night.

The First Information Report (FIR) lodged at Virpur police station by Rinku Vankar, 25, a fourth-year student of the Government Engineering College (GEC) in Gandhinagar, states that the incident took place when she decided to join the garba along with her friend.

In the FIR, the complainant stated that Loma Patel, Roshni Patel and Vrushti Patel first chastised her for joining the event and “began abusing and humiliating her”. “After an argument (with the three women), they used casteist slurs and said, ‘These people are not equal to us and cannot play garba with us’. At that time, I got them to switch off the sound system which was playing for the garba, and complained to Pravin Narsinh Thakor that we were being humiliated… But at that moment, Loma, Roshni and Meena Patel joined together and began assaulting me…,” she stated in the FIR.

The complainant further said that the women grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out while the others overpowered her to prevent her from filming the incident. “They not only hurled casteist abuses at me, but also threatened me with dire consequences if I attempted to return to the same garba again…,” the complaint said.

The accused have been booked under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 54 (crime committed in presence of abettor), 351(1) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) as well as relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Safin Hasan, Superintendent of Police (SP), Mahisagar, told The Indian Express that the Deputy Superintendent of Police of the SC/ST Cell has initiated a probe into the matter, and the statements of the complainant and the accused were being recorded.

“A Supreme Court precedent and guidelines prohibit the arrest of the accused in cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, where the punishment is less than seven years. The investigation is on. We have issued notices to the accused as per the process for preventive action. Their statements are being recorded,” the SP said.

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