Dalit Activist in Gujarat Killed for ‘Not Withdrawing SC/ST Case’
“Since 2013, there have been several attempts to kill my father. The police did not support us. That is why, the dominant caste men of our village could dare to enter our home and hack him to death,” said the weeping daughter of a Dalit rights activist Amrabhai Boricha, 50, who was killed in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district on Tuesday, 2 March.
Amrabhai had filed a complaint under SC/ST Act, against three of the ten accused in 2013 over a brawl that took place after some of the ‘upper caste’ men from the village abused him while passing by his house. Since then, the men have been out on bail but the pressure and harassment had increased for Amrabhai, his daughter recalled. She says that the accused men were constantly pressuring Amrabhai to withdraw the 2013 case….
Speaking to The Quint, Makwana says he has been fighting for Dalit rights since 1998 and there have been several instances when he has been threatened with false FIRs or felt pressured even from the police to not help the Dalit victim….
