Kolis demand CBI inquiry in rape,murder cases

On May 13,2007,a Koli community girl was murdered while another girl was gangraped by two accused namely identified as Mohan Hamir and Mahesh alias Bhado Chauhan. The incident took place on the Datar hills en-route to the Datar shrine on the outskirts of Junagadh. The two culprits are still at large.

The community members had then registered a state-wide protest which took on a violent turn at many places including Rajkot.

A series of rallies and protests were carried out for five months across the state,particularly in the Saurashtra region. The community leaders had even submitted a memorandum to the chief minister in this regard.

The community members are now irked over the failure of the police to arrest the culprits.

On Wednesday,they staged a dharna and demanded the immediate arrest of the two. Batuk Makawana,a Koli community leader and CPM office-bearer,said: “The incident occurred two years ago,but the police are clueless and the accused are out of the reach of the police.”

He added: “The Koli community is much concerned over the incident and it is our demand that the case be handed over to the CBI for investigation,as the state government agencies have failed to solve the rape and murder cases.”