According to the police, the mob attacked Shailesh Rohit, 21, and his mother because he was skinning the animal close to the village crematorium. (File/Representational)
Four days after a mob allegedly attacked two members of a Dalit family over skinning of cattle carcass at Kasor village, in Gujarat’s Anand district, 17 people accused in the case were arrested on Wednesday. A police team, armed with teargas and riot control vehicle, has been stationed by the road that leads to the Dalit settlement of the village since Saturday. On Wednesday, there was no visible sign of tension in the village.
The accused come from Darbar (Kshatriya) community.
According to the police, the mob attacked Shailesh Rohit, 21, and his mother because he was skinning the animal close to the village crematorium. Shailesh rejected the police version. “I had not even started skinning the animal when the mob attacked us,” he said.
“On Friday, I received a call from a customer, who said that his bovine had died and that he wanted me to collect the carcass,” Shailesh said. “I hired a tractor, and brought the carcass to the village. Since the approach road to the land allotted to us for skinning cattle is submerged (in the ongoing showers) and is not usable, I took the carcasss to an open ground near the village’s crematorium.”
On the way to the ground, Shailesh said, the village sarpanch saw him and asked him not to skin the animal there. “I complied and brought the carcass to the ground behind our settlement,” he said.
“But the next day, a mob of around 15 arrived at our colony looking for me. My mother was talking to neighbours when they asked her my address. When she told them that I am her son, they began to abuse her. Hearing the commotion, I came out, and they attacked us. My mother has sustained injuries in her stomach and is traumatised,” said Shailesh, who lives with his ailing father, brother and sister-in-law.
She is undergoing treatment at Petlad Civil Hospital.
According to Shailesh, the 40-odd Dalit families in the village had never experienced such an incident. “I have been skinning dead cattle since I was 15. This is the first time I have been attacked. So far, I had only heard about such incidents and felt the hostility…never harmed,” said Shailesh, who also works as a daily labourer.
Manish Rohit, another villager from the Dalit community said, “This is shocking. There was no history of enmity between the communities, nor was there any provocation — our settlements are clearly divided. On a regular day, we face no visible discrimination…. So we don’t understand why Shailesh’s family was attacked.”
Superintendent of Police (Anand) Saurabh Singh said the arrested people will be produced in the court on Thursday. All those arrested in the case, barring one person, are in their 20s.
