As many as seven upper caste men rounded up a 30-year-old Dalit man and allegedly assaulted him and chopped off his finger in Gujarat’s Patan district recently.
According to a report by the Deccan Herald, the FIR mentioned that the incident had taken place after an eight-year-old Dalit boy had picked up a cricket ball that the upper caste men were playing with at a school playground. One of the accused, identified as Kuldeepsinh Rajput proceeded to scold the boy for picking up the ball, the complaint mentioned.
When the boy’s uncle Dhiraj Parmar came forward and objected to the scolding, the matter quickly turned into a heated argument. However, with the intervention of the residents it was quickly settled for the time being, according to a report from TOI. Meanwhile, PTI reported quoting an official that the upper caste men had made casteist remarks against Parmar, his brother and nephew.
Following the altercation, Dhiraj Parmar left but his brother, Kirti Parmar stayed at a tea stall nearby, the newspaper reported. Finding him alone there, the upper caste men rounded him up and attacked him with sticks and swords. They finally chopped off his left thumb and left him unconscious.
The shopkeeper then called Dhiraj Parmar who took his brother to a hospital. TOI later reported that his condition was stable.
Meanwhile, the superintendent of police (SP) Vishakha Dabral said that two out of the seven men were arrested and teams have been formed so as to nab the remaining accused in the matter.
Those accused have been booked under charges of rioting, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, criminal intimidation and using abusive words, along with provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
