Six days after he was thrashed ‘for addressing shopkeeper’s son as beta’, Dalit man dies of injuries in Gujarat’s Amreli

On Friday, Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani sat on a protest with the family members of the deceased, Nilesh Rathod, and demanded justice.
In a statement on Facebook, the legislator said, “Nilesh Rathod from Jarakhiya village died…days after being mercilessly beaten by casteist elements on a small point of calling a child as such. We demand either a 5-acre farmland or government jobs for all four victims (including the deceased’s kin and acquaintances who were also beaten up), and that the investigation be conducted by a good officer and the case be fast-tracked to set an example.”

Rathod’s family said they would not accept his body until their demands are met.

According to the FIR filed by Lalji Mansukh Chauhan (28), who was among those thrashed in the incident on May 16, he was with Rathod and others at a bhajiya stall on the Amreli-Savarkundla road when the latter went to a shop in the neighbourhood to buy some packaged snacks.

Chauhan said Rathod returned after a few minutes and informed them that the shop owner had tried to hit him with an iron ladle after Rathod called his minor son ‘beta’ (son) while asking the boy if he needed help in reaching the packets of snacks hanging from a hook.

Chauhan then went to the shop to look into the matter but shopkeeper Chotha Khoda Bharwad assaulted him with a stick, he said in the FIR. Another man, named Vijay Anand Tota, also assaulted both Chauhan and Rathod, the FIR stated. At this point, Jaga Dudhat, the bhajiya stall owner, arrived at the spot and rescued them both, it added.

After some time, Rathod’s uncle Suresh Vala went to the shop to confront the owner but, by this time, the shopkeeper had called over a few more men who thrashed them with sticks and sickles while uttering casteist slurs, the FIR said.

The complainant stated that he and others (Rathod, Vala and Dudhat) tried to run away from the spot but the attackers pursued them and continued their assault while taunting them for “overreach” despite being from a “lower caste”.

It was only when an elderly person arrived at the scene and asked them to desist that the group stopped assaulting the men, the FIR said.

The FIR in this case, filed at Amreli Rural police station, initially named just four of the accused, Bharwad, Tota, Bhavesh Mundhwa and Jatin Mundhwa, as the victims could only recognise them.

They were booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 118(1) (grievous hurt), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 189(4) (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapons), 190 (liability of all members of unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting), 191(3) (rioting while armed with deadly weapons), 131 (assault or criminal force), 352 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) and 3(5) (joint liability of a criminal act). They were also booked under various sections of the The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as well as section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act.

However, after Rathod was admitted for treatment at Bhavnagar Civil Hospital, the police added BNS section 109 (attempt to murder), and later, section 103 (murder).

Speaking to The Indian Express, Amreli Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjay Kharat said, “After arresting one of four accused mentioned in the FIR, we found that a total of 11 persons were involved in the incident. We have, since then, nabbed nine of them while police teams are searching for the remaining two accused persons.”

The arrested persons include (besides Bharwad, Tota, Bhavesh and Jatin) Kathad Arjan Mundhwa, Deva Sanga Mundhwa, Duda Bogha Mundhwa, and Ravi Duda Mundhwa.