New Delhi: Police in Gujarat’s Mahisagar district have booked four women for allegedly humiliating and abusing a Dalit woman at a village garba event on Friday (September 26) night.

The accused allegedly dragged the Dalit woman by her hair from the garba event.

Twenty-five-year-old Rinku Vankar, the victim, has registered an FIR at the Virpur police station in which she has said that the incident took place when she decided to join the garba along with her friend, reported Indian Express.

Vankar, a fourth-year student of the Government Engineering College (GEC) in Gandhinagar has said that Loma Patel, Roshni Patel and Vrushti Patel first rebuked her for joining the event and “began abusing and humiliating her”.

“After an argument (with the three women), they used casteist slurs and said, ‘These people are not equal to us and cannot play garba with us’. At that time, I got them to switch off the sound system which was playing for the garba, and complained to Pravin Narsinh Thakor that we were being humiliated… But at that moment, Loma, Roshni and Meena Patel joined together and began assaulting me…,” Vankar has said in the FIR.

Vankar added that the accused women grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out. Other people present on the occasion allegedly overpowered her to prevent her from filming the incident.

“They not only hurled casteist abuses at me, but also threatened me with dire consequences if I attempted to return to the same garba again…,” said Vankar in her complaint.

The accused have been booked under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 54 (crime committed in presence of abettor), 351(1) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) as well as relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to Mahisagar SP Safin Hasan the DSP, SC/ST Cell has started an investigation into the matter, and the statements of the complainant and the accused were being recorded.

“A Supreme Court precedent and guidelines prohibit the arrest of the accused in cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, where the punishment is less than seven years. The investigation is on. We have issued notices to the accused as per the process for preventive action. Their statements are being recorded,” the SP told the newspaper.

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