RAJKOT: The last rites of slain Dalit RTI activisit, Amra Boricha, was performed with Buddhist rituals in this native village Sanodar of Bhavnagar district on Thursday.
Women including the deceased’s daughter carried the body to the crematorium and completed the final rites in presence of hundreds who turned up to pay their last respects.
Boricha was killed by 10 people who barged into his house and attacked him with sharp weapons on Tuesday. The murder was a fall-out of an eight-year-old dispute over settling the atrocity complaint he had lodged against some of them.
Arvind Makwana, district coordinator of Navsarjan Trust, a human rights organization said, “He was very active in Dalit movements and that’s why the family decided to perform his last rites with Buddhist rituals.”
A condolence meeting for Boricha is planned on March 14 in which victims of oppression by upper caste from all over the state are expected to join. “There are many people who wanted to come to express their condolences and we received several phone calls from other victims also. So, we decided to organize public tribute function on March 14 in which all these people will remain present,” said Mavji Sarvaiya, a local Dalit leader.
The victims of atrocities from Una, Thangadh, Kutch and north Gujarat and leaders of Dalit organizations like Dalit Adhikar Manch will remain present.
“We will submit a memorandum to the government in the function to ensure that Dalits should be provided adequate security and such heinous crimes are not repeated,” said Sarvaiya.
Ghogha police have so far arrested seven of the10 accused in this case.