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Journalism of Courage
A Gandhinagar court last week granted bail to three of the four men accused of assaulting and abusing a Dalit groom for riding a horse during his wedding procession earlier this month.
In the order made public on Tuesday, the court of Gandhinagar Additional Sessions Judge DK Soni took into consideration that the three accused do not have any past criminal antecedents. While granting them bail, he went on to observe “prima facie satisfaction of the court in support of the charge, the character of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing the presence of the accused at the trial, the larger interests of the public/ State”.
Samirkumar Thakor (21), Ashwinji Thakor (27) and Jayeshkumar Thakor (23) are the three accused in the case who were granted bail. The bail application of another accused, Shaileshji Thakor, is pending and is due to be heard on Wednesday.
The four were arrested by the Mansa police after the incident and were booked under IPC sections 341, 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a person, 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 114 (abetment) and for offences under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The three accused had argued that they were students, sole breadwinners of their families and were arrested on the grounds of suspicion. The prosecution, on the other hand, opposed their bail pleas, submitting the offence committed by the accused “affects the law and state of affairs.”
The prosecution also submitted that “in a democracy, any caste has a freedom to enjoy their social function” and that the cousin of the complainant, Sanjaykumar Chavda, had sought police protection to complete the rituals of marriage and had to file the complaint in the alleged offence.
The complainant, through his lawyers Govind Parmar and Pratik Rupala, also pointed out while opposing the pleas that statements of witnesses before the magistrate have not yet been taken and that the accused had not given details of what they’re studying and neither have they given evidence to reflect they’re the sole breadwinners in their family.
It was also submitted that if the accused are studying, and they have committed “this type of offence, it affects the Society.”
On February 12, an FIR was lodged at Mansa police station after a Dalit groom was stopped during a wedding procession by some men in Gandhinagar.
The accused had allegedly stopped the wedding procession saying that only their community can sit on the back of a horse and before taking out such a procession, the Dalits should take permission from the accused. The groom was allegedly physically and verbally assaulted by the accused.
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