Una Dalit incident: CID arrests four suspects as victims get hospitalised again

The CID on Wednesday made four arrests in the Una Dalit flogging incident, taking the total number of arrests made in the case to 20, reported The Indian Express. Those apprehended in the case — Vinubhai Gohil (30), Bhavesh Godhvaniya (26), Vipul Jadav (19) and Govind Gohil (19) — were arrested from a village located 10 km away from the victims’ village. DSP Keshavji Saradava, who is investigating the case, told The Indian Express that the four arrested could be spotted in the video of the victims being flogged. He also said that primary investigations have been initiated to confirm the degree of their involvement. “All of them are residents of Samper. They were arrested based on the statements of eye-witnesses,”  said Saradava. While probing the Dalit flogging incident near Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka, the CID-Crime officials also said that they have learnt from eye-witnesses that the cow that was skinned by the Dalit victims was killed by lions, making it clear that the victims were not involved in cow slaughter. CID Inspector General SS Trivedi said that it was still a matter of investigation as to who called the ‘cow vigilantes’ when the Dalits were skinning the cow and what was the motive behind giving such false information, which led to the brutal thrashing. [caption id=“attachment_2908882” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dalit victims being flogged by cow vigilantes in Una.[/caption] The Dalit family’s head Balu Sarvaiya, father of Vashram and Ramesh, had earlier alleged that they might have been framed at the behest of local sarpanch. Even with arrests being handled by CID, the victims are far from being granted justice. The four Dalit victims of the Una incident, who were discharged from Rajkot civil hospital on Wednesday after “improvement” in their health, had to be admitted to the civil hospital again after they developed “serious complications”. The four youths — Ashok Sarvaiya, Vashram Sarvaiya, Bechar Sarvaiya and Ramesh Servaiya — all residents of Mota Samadhiyala village of Una taluka of Gir-Somnath district, were brutally thrashed by self-styled cow vigilantes at Una over two weeks ago that then led to large-scale protests across the state. Rajkot civil hospital superintendent D Vatsraj had said that the youths were discharged as their condition had improved. However, their relatives rushed them to Ahmedabad civic hospital on Thursday after their condition became serious. “After they reached their home last evening, some of them started vomiting, while others complained of severe body pain,” Ahmedabad civil hospital superintendent M Prabhakar said, adding that all four of them have been admitted there. According to Prabhakar, some of the Dalit youths developed complications and started vomiting and complained of severe body pain. Their relatives then brought them to the hospital. “We admitted them and started treating them immediately. We found that two of them are severely ill, as foam was oozing out from their mouth. We will do everything possible to improve their condition,” the superintendent said, adding that after some initial treatment, their condition is stable now. On 11 July, these Dalit youths were beaten up for allegedly skinning a dead cow. On 14 July, they were referred to Rajkot civil hospital from Una for further treatment. Meanwhile, several Dalit leaders, as well as senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela visited the hospital alleging that these youths were discharged from Rajkot hospital before they fully recovered. “Although these Dalits were in serious condition, they were discharged from Rajkot hospital. This is matter of probe as to why the superintendent allowed them to go home and who has pressurised him to do so,” president of ‘Gujarat Dalit Panther’ Chirag Rajvansh said. Vaghela alleged that it was an inhuman act by the doctors of Rajkot hospital at the behest of political or government pressure. After his visit, Vaghela said, “It is clear that these Dalits were forced to leave the hospital in serious condition. This is an inhuman act by the superintendent. He should not have thrown them out due to the pressure from government or political party. If something happens to them, we will definitely seek answer from him.” The thrashing incident also lead to wide scale outrage in the form of protests and uproar in Rajya Sabha. On Wednesday, Dalit writer Amrutlal Makwana returned an award given by the Gujarat government out of “grief and pain due to the treatment meted out to Dalit youths in Una”. The 44-year-old writer had received the Dasi Jeevan Shreshth Dalit Sahitya Kruti Award for 2012-13 for his work Kharapat Nu Dalit Lok Sahitya. Makwana returned the award, including Rs 25,000, at Ahmedabad District Collector’s office. In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, Makwana said, “Such incidents are occurring in Gujarat on a regular basis but the government is not doing enough to ensure that Dalits get justice." “What happened at Mota Samadhiyala village of Gir-Somnath district was ghastly and barbaric. Such atrocities on Dalits are condemnable and it shook me to the core. Sadly, such incidents are happening around us regularly,” he said_._ With inputs from agencies