Gujarat govt, DGP get legal notices over cops publicly flogging minority community members
Ahmedabad, October 7
A voluntary organisation in Gujarat has sent legal notices to the state chief secretary and the DGP after some police personnel publicly flogged a few members of a minority community accused of stone-pelting during a garba dance event in Kheda district.
Mujahid Nafees, convener of the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), issued contempt notices to the officers after some policemen were seen publicly flogging the accused in Undhela village in Kheda on Tuesday.
Through the legal notice dated Thursday, the MCC has urged the state government to take “appropriate and suitable departmental, disciplinary, punitive and criminal action against the erring police officials forthwith who have openly violated all rights of the victims by way of public flogging”.
Nafees said that if no action is initiated, he will be constrained to initiate suitable legal action against the erring police officials and the respondents.
“Those who were flogged belong to the minority Muslim community. No action has been taken/initiated till date in complete violation of all rights of those flogged,” stated the legal notice.
“Such open and brazen violation is not only against the protected right under Article 21, but against the whole constitutional spirit of a civilised society,” it further stated.
In Gujarat, India, Muslim men are publicly flogged as crowds chant Hindu nationalist slogans. Where are the police? Take a look at the scene.pic.twitter.com/kOLfZ0XLS3
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) October 5, 2022
The alleged stone-pelting incident does not justify the public flogging by the police personnel to quell the “hurt sentiments” of the majority population of the village, it said.
Seven men, including a policeman, were injured in an attack on a garba event on Monday night by a group comprising Muslim community members, who objected to holding of the programme near a mosque in Kheda district.
Video clips showed three men arrested for allegedly throwing stones at the participants at the garba event, being brought out of a police van near the event venue. They were then taken towards an electric pole and held against it by a policeman who pulled their hands. Another policeman is seen hitting them below the waist with a baton.
