In a shocking incident, a 25-year-old dalit youth was hacked to death, allegedly by upper caste men in Ahmedabad district on Monday night. One person is reported to have been arrested.
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Haresh Solanki, a resident of Gandhidham in Kutch, had gone to pick up his wife Urmila from her father's residence. The two got married a couple of months before. They had met while studying in college. Urmila belongs to upper caste Darbar community.
Shockingly, the incident occurred even though Solanki was accompanied by a counselor from 181 (Women's Helpline), a lady police constable and a driver.
According to an FIR lodged by Bhavika Bhagora, of Women's Helpline, the incident occurred in Varmor village of Mandal taluka. The Mandal police, who reached the spot within minutes of Solanki being attacked with sharp weapons, pronounced him dead.
In the FIR, Bhagora quoted Solanki having told her that his wife was two months pregnant, he was worried about her and wanted to take her back home.
Apparently, the girl's parents were not happy with her marriage to a dalit youth.
In the presence of the counselor, the parents are believed to have talked sweet. However, when the team that went along with Solanki stepped out, a group of people with sharp weapons had started attacking him. While the counselor and the woman police constable had gone to meet Urmila's family members, Solanki had remained seated in the vehicle.
Bhagora has described in detail how Solanki was attacked.
This is second murder of a dalit man in less than a month. In second half of June, Manji Solanki, a deputy sarpanch of Jalila village of Botad district, was murdered, allegedly by upper caste men. His family members said that the upper caste people could not tolerate the fact that members of their family were getting elected to the post for the last several years.
Martin Mackwan of Navsarjan, working for dalits, told THE WEEK that this is untouchability despite claims of the state government that it does not exist.
He said that there have been talks of development, but the development is merely economical and not social.
