Gujarat: Dalit Man Attacked by His Brother’s Murderer

On September 13, 2012, Lalji Sarvaiya, a 27-year-old dalit youth of Ankolali village, Gir Gadhada taluka (earlier in Una taluka) of Gir Somnath district in Gujarat was burnt alive in his home by a mob of about 500 upper caste men of his village. After six years of legal battle, in November 2018, a Special Atrocity Court of Una, in a landmark judgement declared 11 accused guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment until death, with a fine of Rs 54,500 each.

Seven months after the judgement, on June 27, Arjan Babubhai Makwana, one of the convicts who was out on parole and Arshi Bhikhabhai Vaja, whose father and brother are convicts in the murder of Lalji Sarvaiya, thrashed Lalji’s younger brother Piyush Sarvaiya.

This is the fourth incident in a month of a dalit man being attacked by upper caste men in Saurashtra region of Gujarat and the second incident where kin of accused have attacked the family of the victim.

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“I had to meet a friend and was travelling towards Tower Chowk in Una town when Arjan Babubhai Makwana and Arshi Bhikhabhai Vaja who were coming from the opposite direction rammed their motorcycle into mine. After ramming the motorcycle, Arjan who was riding pillion got off, grabbed me by my collar and began to thrash me while verbally abusing me,” Piyush Sarvaiya told NewsClick.

Piyush Sarvaiya

“When I tried to flee, they (Arjan and Arshi) chased me and started thrashing me again. They told me that since they have already been sentenced to life imprisonment, they were not afraid of any further punishment. However, local people who saw the incident came to my rescue and the duo had to let me go,” he added.

Following the attack, Sarvaiya filed a FIR in Una police station. Subsequently, Arjan Makwana and Arshi Vaja were arrested by Una police under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with to provoke breach of peace), 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

“We were not informed but a few of the 11 convicts of the case have been out on parole. Parole is usually granted on condition that the convict should not pose a danger to anyone, but this attack is a clear violation of that. We will surely report this attack,” said Advocate Govind Parmar, who handled the case for the Sarvaiya family.

“After being sentenced to life imprisonment by the Atrocity Court, the convicts have appealed in the High Court,” he added.

It should be noted that Piyush Sarvaiya has been asking for police protection since the hearing of the case but he is yet to get a response on the matter.

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“My family has been threatened, stones have been pelted at our house in Delwada village and we have been offered money multiple times during the hearing of the case to pressurise us into withdrawing,” Piyush claimed.

“Even after the latest attack, I called the Superintendent of Police of the district and asked for police protection,” he added.

The judgement had created an uproar amongst the upper caste people of villages in and around Una taluka. On the day of the judgement around five to six thousand upper caste men thronged outside the Court in Una. Following the judgement, Advocate Govind Parmar had to be escorted outside the limits of Una town and Sarvaiya family were escorted back to Delwada village.

History of Caste Violence

The Sarvaiya family has been at the receiving end of caste violence since the year 2012.

The family, which had 12 members once, lived in Ankolali village and were the only dalit family among 200 households of Koli Patels and Darbars. While the Sarvaiyas did have some fears, their economic condition was better than many Koli Patels of the village.

Lalji Sarvaiya, the victim, used to work in a stone quarry and earned a handsome salary while his three brothers earned well too and the family owned a house and 15 bigha of agricultural land that Kalabhai Sarvaiya, father of Lalji had received more than 40 years ago.

On the ill-fated night of September 13, 2012, a mob of about 500 villagers, all from Koli Patel and Darbar castes pelted stones at the house where the Sarvaiyas lived, locked the door from outside and doused the house with kerosene and set it on fire.

Lalji, who was inside the house, was burnt alive. He was believed to be in a relationship with an upper caste woman of the village, who also happened to be the niece of then Sarpanch’s husband, and this relationship had irked the upper caste villagers.

Also read: In Landmark Judgement, 11 Accused Held Guilty Six Years After Dalit’s Murder in Una

Kalabhai was injured in the stone pelting but narrowly escaped the fire, while he watched his son being burnt alive. Jhayaben Sarvaiya, wife of Lalji’s brother was witness to the incident and went into shock to never recover from the trauma. She died ten days later in Una civil hospital leaving behind a two-month-old daughter.

The Sarvaiyas had to leave Ankolali and were given ‘refugee status’ in 2013, after spending a year shifting from one rented house to other, out of fear for their lives.

“As the Gujarat government made attempts to rehabilitate our family in any place, the upper caste villagers would protest against settling a dalit family in their village. Due to which we couldn’t settle for four years and lived in rented spaces in Una town. Finally, a plot was allotted to us in 2016 which is about 2 kilometres from the Delwada village,” Piyush said.

“Upper caste villagers of Delwada have pelted stones at our house multiple times to drive us away. Every time this happens, I go to the local police but they have never taken any action. Besides, the land allotted to us is dry and arid, and cultivation is not possible on this land,” he added.

In the past six years, the Sarvaiya family have been arrested multiple times and were kept in jail even for protesting. The family, fed up with caste violence, had pleaded for euthanasia once in 2015 and then again in 2018. In 2016, the family had gone on hunger strike in Gandhinagar for about a month protesting the repeated attacks against their family.

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