Gujarat HC wants action against cops who beat up dalits last year

The HC also said that the amount of compensation be recovered from the salaries of the erring officers.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala,apparently moved by the police atrocities,pronounced the judgment Friday.

The court had taken suo motu cognisance of a letter by a human rights activist addressed to the Chief Justice about the police atrocities on dalits in Rajkot last year.

It all started on June 24 last year when a dalit leader from Rajkot,Gunvant Rathod,was killed by some non-dalits. The next day,a funeral procession was taken out by dalits.

After the cremation,some in the procession staged protests,demanding arrests of the culprits,when police lathicharged them.

The letter sent to the Chief Justice also stated that policemen entered the houses of dalits at Ambedkarnagar and mercilessly beat them up. Those beaten up included children and women.

One of the injured,Rupa Sondarava (16),was allegedly kicked by police following which she sustained serious spinal injury that threatened to cause permanent disability.

The dalits lodged complaints against policemen but no action was taken.

Following this,one Dr Jayanti Mankadiya wrote to the Chief Justice about the police atrocities on dalits and sought his intervention. Photographs and a video CD as evidence of police atrocities accompanied the letter.Subsequently,the court appointed senior advocate Shalin Mehta as the amicus curiae in the matter.

The state government had defended the police action saying they were discharging their duty to maintain law and order. However,the court observed it was quite clear from the video clip that the policemen acted without any provocation and mercilessly beat up even those who were not part of the mob.

The court observed that in the video that “struck us with horror”,policemen were seen pelting stones back at the mob,which was not expected of them. “This was unheard of and unexpected of them (police),” it said.

The court also observed that policemen kept beating a man even after he was lying on the ground,as if he was “a bait before a hungry lion”.

Advocate Hemang Shah,who assisted Mehta in the case,said the court had ordered that the inquiry committee to be constituted by the principal secretary (home) fix responsibilities of the erring officers and take appropriate action against them,which included criminal prosecution.