Gujarat: Dalit man assaulted for calling upper caste child 'beta'; dies later

A 20-year-old Dalit man succumbed to injuries on May 22, six days after being brutally assaulted over allegedly addressing a teenager from an upper case as “beta (son)” at a shop in Gujarat’s Amreli district.

The victim has been identified as Nilesh Rathod from Jarakhiya village, Lathi Taluka in Amreli district.

According to the FIR filed by his 28-year-old cousin, Lalji Mansukh Chauhan, who was also assaulted on May 16, the incident began when Rathod and others were at a bhajiya stall on the Amreli-Savarkundla road. Rathod went to a nearby shop to buy packaged snacks, where the teenager was present.

When the teenager reached out for the snacks, Rathod casually called him “beta” and asked if he needed help.

Moments later, a visibly shaken Rathod returned to the bhajiya stall and told his cousin Chauhan that the father of the child attacked him with an iron rod, just for calling his child “beta.”

Hearing this, Chauhan followed to check on the situation and approached the shopkeeper, Chotha Khoda Bharwad, but instead got assaulted. Witnesses say that another person, Vijay Anand Tota, who was standing nearby, also attacked the brothers.

The Dalit men were rescued after the bhajiya stall owner, Jaga Dudhat, intervened.

When Rathod’s uncle Suresh Vala came to know about the incident, he, along with Rathod, Chauhan and Dudhat, went to the bhajiya shop and confronted Chotha Khoda Bharwad.

To their horror, Bharwad called a group of men who attacked the Dalits with sticks and sickles and hurled casteist slurs.

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As they tried to flee, the attackers chased and continued beating them, mocking their caste status and accusing them of “overreaching.”

The assault stopped only after an elderly man urged the attackers to stop.

Legal action and arrests

Initially, the FIR named four accused: Chotha Khoda Bharwad, Vijay Anand Tota, Bhavesh Mundhwa, and Jatin Mundhwa, identified by the victims.

They were booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including grievous hurt, unlawful assembly with deadly weapons, rioting, assault, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, attempt to murder, and later, murder charges. The accused also face charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and Section 135 of the Gujarat Police Act.

So far, nine of the eleven involved have been arrested, including Bharwad, Tota, Bhavesh Mundhwa, Jatin Mundhwa, Kathad Arjan Mundhwa, Deva Sanga Mundhwa, Duda Bogha Mundhwa, and Ravi Duda Mundhwa.

Police continue to search for the remaining two.

Further investigation is ongoing.

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