Dalit thrashed to death in Gujarat for attending Garba event

A 21-year-old Dalit man, Jayesh Solanki, was beaten to death by a group of men from the upper case Patel community for attending a Garba event in Gujarat Anand's district Sunday morning.

Jayesh Solanki along with his cousin Prakash Solanki and two other Dalit men were sitting near a house adjacent to a temple in Bhadrania village when a person made "derogatory remarks about their caste", police told PTI quoting a complaint filed in connection with the incident. 

The upper caste men allegedly thrashed the Dalits and banged Jayesh's head against a wall, PTI reported an officer saying. 

Jayesh was declared dead by the doctors after being rushed to a hospital in Karamsad in the morning.

"Jayesh was killed in the heat of the moment, as there was no rivalry between him and the accused. We are probing the case from all angles. The accused will be arrested soon," said the officials. 

The incident took place at 4 am on Sunday, police said.

The accused said Dalits do not have any right to watch the Garba, a popular dance festival in Gujarat.

The accused made casteist remarks and asked some men to come to the spot, said an officer at the Bhadran police station.

The officials have registered a FIR under IPC sections related to murder and the Prevention of Atrocities Act against eight men.

Deputy SP AM Patel said it did not appear to be a pre-planned attack. 

In a recent case, two Dalit men of a village near Gandhinagar were allegedly thrashed by four members of the Rajput community for "sporting a moustache" in separate incidents in September.

Last year in July, massive protests erupted out in Una town of the state after the brutal killing of four Dalit men who was lynched for allegedly skinning dead cows.