An FIR has been booked against three individuals who slapped and abused a Dalit woman in Gujarat’s Vadodara, following a scuffle with her son.
According to the police complaint by Jaya Parmar, the accused Jay Patel alias Donny, Jana Patel and a third unidentified individual threatened to evict her from her home on Friday.
According to The Indian Express, in the FIR, the complainant states, “On the night of June 9, Donny arrived at our residence in Ranoli in search of my son Mitesh. He slapped me and hurled casteist abuses at me and threatened to abduct me if my son was not found. He threatened that we should vacate the house or he would throw us out himself.”
Initially, the police turned down Jaya’s request to register an FIR. Following this, she met Vadagam MLA Jignesh Mewani, on Sunday, at a Congress outreach program in Vadodara.
On Monday, Mewani announced that he would sit in protest at the city’s Police Bhavan until an FIR was booked against the accused.
Following this, the Jawaharnagar police were forced to register a case. Mewani then called off his protest.
Now, the matter sits with the SC/ST cell of the Vadodara police.
Several reports of crimes against Dalits have emerged from Gujarat over the last couple of months. Last week, news broke in from Mahisagar that a Dalit man was beaten up by an upper-class restaurant owner, over a food order.
In another incident, a Dalit man from Gujarat’s Patan district had his thumb chopped off after scuffle over a cricket ball in a school playground.
