Gujarat: Dalit man, tied by ropes around his waist, beaten to death in Rajkot

Five people were arrested by the police for mercilessly beating to death a 35-year-old Dalit man, suspecting him to be a thief, in Gujarat's Rajkot.

In a video, two people were purportedly seen beating the man, tied by ropes around his waist, with iron rods. The police arrested five people in connection with the brutal murder after the video went viral on the social media. 

“A man who used to collect garbage was beaten up by some people at the Radadiya Industries compound near Shapar town yesterday. The factory owner accused him and his wife of theft,” PTI quoted Rajkot (rural) in-charge superintendent of police Shruti S Mehta as saying.

“We have arrested the five people based on the video that purportedly showed the victim being beaten up. An investigation is underway,” she said.

The victim’s wife had lodged a complaint at the Shapar-Veraval police station in Rajkot last evening, accusing the five people of thrashing her husband following which he died, Mehta said.

The victim, identified as Mukesh Vaniya, a ragpicker, died while being taken to the government hospital in Rajkot, an official at the Shapar-Veraval police station said.

According to the complaint filed by the victim’s wife, the couple was picking garbage near the Radadiya Industries, located in the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) area, when they were held and then beaten up by the accused.

An FIR was lodged under sections 302 (murder) and 308 (culpable homicide) of the IPC, he said.

Four of the arrested persons were identified as Chirag Patel, Divyesh Patel, Jaysukh Radadiya and Tejas Zala. Jaysukh Radadiya is the owner of the factory where the incident allegedly took place while the others are his friends, according to the police.

(With inputs from agencies)