Gujarat: A Dalit man tied up, beaten to death by factory workers in Rajkot, wife beaten too; two held after Video goes viral
Gujarat: A Dalit man tied up, beaten to death by factory workers in Rajkot, wife beaten too; two held after Video goes viral
A Dalit man who was kept captive and bound by ropes around his waist was beaten brutally beaten by rods while he was screaming hard and begging for mercy. The man, who was allegedly beaten at a factory in Gujarat's Rajkot on the orders of factory's owner. The video of the heinous act has gone viral on the social media. The man died after the savage beating on the orders of an auto-parts factory owner, according to a police complaint. His wife was allegedly beaten up too.
The Dalit man, identified as Mukesh Vaniya, cried and screamed as he was flogged by two men in the disturbing footage tweeted on Sunday morning by Gujarat's lawaker Jignesh Mevani.
"Mr Mukesh Vaniya belonging to a scheduled caste was miserably thrashed and murdered by factory owners in Rajkot and his wife was brutally beaten up," he tweeted with the hashtag #GujaratIsNot Safe4Dalits.
Five people, including the factory owner, have been held on charges of murder and under the law on atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, says police.
"We have arrested five people, including the factory owner. I cannot reveal his name yet as it's not mentioned in the FIR (first information report). A murder case has been filed under the SC/ST Act and a deputy rank officer will probe the case," Rajkot senior police officer Shruti Mehta said.
As per reports, Mukesh Vaniya and his wife, both rag-pickers, were using magnets to look for scrap when some factory workers confronted them, accusing them of theft. And beat the man with rods. The woman escaped getting help from their village nearby. By the time she returned with some people, Vaniya was on the ground. Later, he was pronounced dead in the hospital.
"This is a far more gruesome incident than Una. In Una, the victims were beaten up and humiliated. Whereas, here a man lost his life amidst caste violence... The government of Gujarat has still not learned from its past mistakes," Mr Mevani wrote on Facebook.
According to a report in NDTV, an FIR has been registered and five people, including the factory owner, have been arrested on charges of murder and under the law on atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.