Gujarat Dalit’s murder questions Supreme Court’s dilution of SC/ST Act

Gujarat's Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani dedicated the ‘news’ of the murder to the recent Supreme Court ruling that said Dalits were prone to blackmail innocent citizens with the POA Act.

Well-known Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, founder of the state's biggest Dalit NGO Navsarjan Trust, reacted by saying, "The Supreme Court had ruled that the anti-atrocities law was being misused to harass innocent people. Even before the ink dried up, this young boy was murdered."

Another Dalit activist Kantilal Parmar pointed out why the administration was forced to act in this case. "Kalubhai's family refused to take Pradip's body, lying in Bhavnagar Civil Hospital, till those accused in the murder were arrested. About 2,000 people from surrounding villages joined in and sat on dharna,” he said.

The administration was then forced to act and round up three persons involved in the murder."

Recently, in Rajkot's Manekvada village a young Right to Information activist was killed for seeking to reveal massive corruption in the administration while a Dalit boy in Sabarkantha district was beaten up for growing a moustache.

Then there was the suicide of a Dalit in charge of a midday meal scheme in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home town Vadnagar on being harassed by teachers and the murder of Mahesh Senva in Ahmdabad district for seeking irrigation water.

Dalit activists feel that now the murder of Pradip Rathod in Bhavnagar should act as an ye-opener for both the Government and the Supreme Court.

Rathod was killed barely a week after his father was asked to dissuade his son from ‘showing off’ by riding on the horse he had gifted his son. The horse had been bought for Rupees 30,000 five months ago.

Pradip had gone out on horse back on the evening of March 29 but the horse returned alone. His blood soaked body was discovered by the family members who went out to look for him.