Dalits have no right to watch garba: Upper caste men lynch youth in Guj

Ahmedabad: A 21-year-old Dalit man was beaten to death allegedly by a group of men belonging to the upper caste Patel community for attending a garba event in Gujarat's Anand district on Sunday, police said.

Jayesh Solanki, his cousin Prakash Solanki and two other Dalit men were sitting near a house at 4 in the morning, adjacent to a temple in Bhadrania village when a person made "derogatory remarks about their caste", police said quoting a complaint.

The accused said Dalits "do not have any right to watch garba. He made casteist remarks and asked some men to come to the spot," an officer at Bhadran police station said.

The upper caste men allegedly thrashed the Dalits and banged Jayesh's head against a wall, the officer said. He was taken to a hospital in Karamsad, where he died later in the morning.

The officer said a police complaint has been filed.

Senior police officer AM Patel said it did not appear to be a pre-planned attack. "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," the officer said.