Kheda, Gujarat: A Muslim resident of Undhela village, where some Muslim men were flogged by Gujarat policemen in plain clothes for hurling stones at a garba event, has filed an affidavit with the local magistrate court naming senior police officers as well as the local MLA as accused.
The hosting of garba in the village chowk for the first time was a “pre-planned conspiracy”, reads the affidavit dated 10 October.
ThePrint has earlier reported how Muslim residents claimed Patel had organised garba in their village for the first time.
In his affidavit in the Matar magistrate court, Ayubmiya Mirsabmiya Shaikh has named Kheda Deputy Superintendent of Police V. R. Bajpai, Undhela sarpanch Indravadan Patel, local BJP MLA Kesarisinh Solanki and a local police inspector as accused.
Inspector A. V. Parmar and sub-inspector Kumavat, who were seen in a viral video of the public flogging, were also named as accused. The Print has a copy of the affidavit.
Advocate Gulrej Sayyad, who is representing the Muslim men arrested for disrupting the 3 October event, told ThePrint that the court accepted the affidavit and asked the Gujarat police chief to submit a report within 60 days.
“The question is why did they arrest those men and bring them back the next day? This needs to be probed thoroughly,” the advocate said.
ThePrint reached out to Deputy Superintendent of Police V. R. Bajpai over phone for his statement but calls went unanswered. This report will be updated once a response is received.
A source in the Kheda Police, meanwhile, told ThePrint that no action — including forced leave or suspension ordered pending inquiry — was taken against the police personnel involved in the flogging incident so far.
Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Ashish Bhatia has already ordered an internal inquiry into the public flogging at Undhela village in Kheda district.
Investigating Officer V. N. Solanki of the Kapadvanj police station declined to comment on the progress of the investigation. “I was asked to submit a report of the incident. I am doing my job, and I don’t need to leak anything about it to the media. I will only give it [report] to the person concerned and not even to anybody else in the department,” he told ThePrint.
On 7 October, a voluntary Muslim organisation, Minority Coordination Committee, in Gujarat had sent legal notices to the state chief secretary and the police chief demanding an inquiry by a retired high court judge raising doubt about the impartiality of a police inquiry against its personnel.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: In Gujarat’s Undhela, Hindu-Muslim blamegame hots up after flogging. In eye of storm: A sarpanch