Gujarat: Patidar woman ‘refuses’ medical test after custodial torture claims

The woman, who belongs to the Patidar community, is the only one among the four accused who was released on bail after protests from within the community and the opposition AAP and Congress over her being allegedly “paraded” in public on December 29, during a reconstruction of the case. After her release, the woman accused alleged in a video statement that she was “thrashed” in police custody after which an SIT had been formed to investigate the same.

According to Kharat, the police took her home later Tuesday evening and suggested the medical team come to her home and do the examination in the presence of whoever she wished. “But she is now telling us ‘I don’t want to do the examination now’. She is not cooperating,” Kharat claimed.

Later on Tuesday, videos shared by the office of Dhanani showed him purportedly stopping the police convoy, asking the woman to step out of the police vehicle and sit in his car. The former Congress Legislature Party leader is not seen on camera but a voice, purportedly his, is heard asking the woman police officers as to why they had picked up the woman. The voice also asks them to drop her back home.

At this point, the woman police officer interjects, asking him his identity. When Dhanani identifies himself, the woman officer says that they had brought her from her home and it was thus their responsibility to drop her back home. Dhanani then allegedly accuses the officer of picking the Patidar woman from her home to threaten and coerce her.

At this point, the woman officer turns to the Patidar woman and asks her if she had been threatened by them.

Further in the video, the officer claims that no threats had been made and that the Patidar woman’s brother was with her the entire time. The officer also says that she was being taken by the team with the consent of her parents. Dhanani then asks the officer to drop the Patidar woman back home. When the officer asks the woman in question, she too says that she would like to go home, at which point the officer agrees to do so.

The woman and three others — BJP Amreli taluka unit youth leader Manish Vaghasia, Jashwantgarh sarpanch Ashok Mangrolia and an associate Jitu Khatra — are accused of allegedly forging a letter levelling allegations of corruption on Vekariya in the name of taluka panchayat chairman Kishore Kanpariya.

Following protests from Patidar leaders, including those from influential Shree Khodaldham Trust, Amreli district police had filed an application before local court of the Judicial Magistrate (First Class) seeking her discharge from the case. But it was rejected. Apart from her, bail applications of other accused were also rejected by court. Kharat said the accused then appealed in the district sessions court which granted her bail, but not the other three.