A few miscreants stabbed a 17-year-old Dalit boy for sporting a moustache in Limbodara village in Gujarat's Gandhinagar district on Tuesday when he was returning from school after finishing his examination. Earlier, two more Dalits were attacked allegedly by upper caste Darbars.
Following the murder of the youth, at least 300 Dalit men from villages near Sanand kept a WhatsApp display picture which displayed a logo of a twirled moustache with a crown and had 'Mr Dalit' written on it. The picture grabbed attention two days after a Dalit youth was killed in Borsad village in Anand for watching garba at a temple.
A few hours before the attack, the boy had told the Indian Express that he was assaulted on September 25.
On September 27, a FIR was registered at Kalol police station under several provisions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. After two days, another Dalit youth, Kunal Maheria, was attacked for the same reason of daring to sport a moustache and a FIR was lodged the following the day.
The elder sister of the victim said that the teen was in pain as he was attacked by a blade and had to get seven stitches. When he returned home with a bleeding back, he was rushed to the Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar. She explained that the first time he was beaten; the family did not file a FIR as they thought that it might affect his academics.
Gandhinagar SP Virendrasingh Yadav said that the matter was being investigated. The teen was attacked with a blade by two bike-borne miscreants who had their faces covered. Interestingly, the people nearest to the place did not hear any screaming. A FIR has been filed under section 326 of IPC and the SP said that the matter will be thoroughly investigated.
Limbodara sarpanch, who called a meeting soon after the incident to discuss the attack, said that they were unsure about the caste of the attackers.
To protest the killings, Dalits near Sanand adopted the twirled moustache logo as their WhatsApp display picture in an attempt to tell people there was nothing wrong with Dalits twirling the moustache.
