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The Vadodara police on Friday formally arrested four of the five accused detained in the case of the alleged assault of a Dalit youth, after a purported video of the incident went viral two days ago. One of the five detained, ascertained to be a minor, was produced in the juvenile court on Friday and sent to the reform home.
Deputy superintendent of police, Vadodara, BH Chavda said that the probe indicated that four arrested accused had assaulted the complainant, Alpesh Parmar, after being summoned for help by a woman, who Parmar has named as a friend in the FIR filed at the taluka police station. The woman, said to be a social media influencer, told police that Parmar had allegedly been pursuing her for a relationship.
DySP Chavda said, “We have recorded the statement of the woman… She has supported the claim made by the accused that the complainant had been pursuing her for a relationship after befriending her on social media. However, when they met in person, she rejected his proposal… She said that she had called the accused for help after the complainant followed her to the spot on the day of the incident… However, she has not come forth to file any individual complaint against Parmar.”
Chavda added that the four arrested — Parampir Madansinh Rathod, Pratap Prakash Makwan, Tushar Bharat Solanki, and Mahipal Ronak Chavda — will be produced in court on Saturday. “Since the FIR has been filed under sections of the Atrocity Act and some of the accused also belong to the same community as the complainant, we will revise the charges for those accused at the time of filing of the chargesheet,” Chavda said.
According to the police, the video is of December 11 when the five accused assaulted the complainant with a leather belt and sticks. The FIR was filed at the taluka police station of Vadodara district Wednesday.
It said the complainant Alpesh Parmar (Vankar), 24, was assaulted when he was talking to a woman friend—belonging to an upper caste community—along the Narmada canal on Bhayli-Sevasi road at around 3.30 pm on December 11. Seven people armed with sticks and leather belts arrived at the spot and began thrashing Parmar, it added.
The FIR also states after the video of the assault went viral on social media, Parmar’s family and community members urged him to approach the police, following which, he submitted a complaint late Wednesday.
The accused have been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for unlawful assembly (143), rioting (147), every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of the prosecution of the common object (149), punishment for voluntarily causing hurt (323), criminal intimidation [506(2)], and uttering obscene words in a public place [294(B)] as well as sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
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