Una flogging: 80 witnesses turned hostile during trial

As recorded by the judgment, an eyewitness of the prosecution who worked at a petrol pump was said to have seen the procession of the victims carried out by the accused at Una bus stand. The witness, however, denied the same in his testimony before the court.

Another witness, who operated a fruit cart near the Una bus stop, had allegedly seen the four victims being paraded. In his testimony before the court, he refused to have witnessed the incident and said that he had gone home for lunch at the time.

A witness who sold soft drinks near Una bus stand had reportedly identified one accused while the four victims were being paraded. However, in his deposition before the court, the witness denied having identified any of the accused men and added that he saw four men tied to a white car while being taken away.

Another witness, who had identified some of the accused from a video clip of the incident, too, did not support the prosecution’s case. In its judgment, the court observed that this witness was a sarpanch of the neighbouring Samter village at the time.

Many of the witnesses admitted having seen the incident but, later, refused to identify the accused.

In its judgment, while analysing the evidence of the eyewitnesses, the court observed, “…most of the eyewitnesses do not support the prosecution case. And from the evidence of the witnesses who support the case, it is only proved that one incident occurred near Bharadiya and the second incident occurred between the Una bus stand and the police station, wherein four persons were stripped of their shirts, tied behind a car and were being beaten while being taken away. However, it does not prove who these people were and what they were saying.”

A senior lawyer related to the case said that the fact that so many witnesses turned hostile certainly had a bearing on the judgment apart from other important aspects.

The incident happened in the outskirts of Mota Samadhiyala of Una tehsil in Gir Somnath district on July 11, 2016, when Vashram Sarvaiya and some of his relatives were skinning dead cows—one of them was killed by a lion. At this time, the accused allegedly gathered there as part of a conspiracy and started beating them while alleging that they were into cow slaughter. They also allegedly robbed the victims’ mobile phones.
On getting a message that his sons were being beaten up, Balu Sarvaiya ( Vashram’s father) reached the spot and allegedly asked the accused to stop while also stating that skinning dead cows was their occupation.

Balu and some of his other relatives were also allegedly attacked by the accused and later the four victims—Vashram, and his relatives Bechar, Ashok and Ramesh — were wrongful confined by the accused in their SUV and flogged with wooden/plastic sticks, iron bars, etc. and paraded half-naked in Una before being handed to the police.

Gujarat CID Crime investigated the case and filed a chargesheet against 41 people. As one of the accused died during the pendency of the trial, the case was abated against him. So, 40 accused faced the criminal trial.