Dalit beaten to death in Rajkot, 5 held after video goes viral

RAJKOT: A 30-year-old Dalit ragpicker was beaten to death over suspicion of theft from a factory in Shapar industrial area on the outskirts of Rajkot on Sunday.

Four persons were arrested and a 17-yearold boy held on Monday for beating Mukesh Vaniya (30) to death and assaulting his wife Jaya and aunt Savita. While police said that the accused suspected Vaniya and his family members to be thieves, Vaniya’s wife Jaya alleged that the accused had first inquired about their caste, hurled casteist abuses, and then began thrashing them when they refused to clean up filth near their factory.

A video of the incident — purportedly showing two persons taking turns to beat Vaniya, a ragpicker, with a stick while another person holds him by a rope tied to his waist — went viral on social media, reprising the Una atrocity of July 2016 when four Dalit youths were thrashed publicly over the skinning of dead cows.

The Gujarat government on Monday announced Rs 8.25 lakh compensation for Vaniya’s family. Social justice and empowerment minister Ishwar Parmar and the state’s junior home minister Pradipsinh Jadeja assured that strict legal action would be taken against the culprits. The victim’s body was cremated at his native village on Monday morning.