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Gujarat govt orders probe into deaths in police firing

The Gujarat government has ordered a high-ranking bureaucrat and a top CID officer to separately inquire into the death of three Dalit youths in police firing in two incidents in Thangadh town in Surendranagar district on Saturday and Sunday.

Social Justice Minister Fakir Vaghela, who on Monday visited the tension-charged town that had witnessed violent clashes between Dalits and Bharwads said the principal secretary in his department had been asked to inquire into the tragedy and submit a detailed report. The Gujarat police chief Chittaranhjan Singh also told journalists here that CID (Crime) DIG would probe the incidents to find out why the police had to open fire. The home department on Monday also suspended police sub inspector K P Jadeja who had fired at the mob killing three youths aged 17, 18 and 26 at a time when Chief Minister Narendra Modi was touring the district as part of his one-month-long statewide Swami Vivekanand Yuva Vikas Yatra.

The Bharwads, notorious for their high-handed approach to problems, and Dalits had a verbal duel on Friday over auctioning of stalls at a fair in Thangadh.

The heated exchanges led to a violent attack by Bharwads in which a Dalit boy was badly beaten up. The Dalits complained to the police but when no action was taken, some 1,000 Dalits gathered near the main police station on Saturday and began pelting stones at the five law-keepers present there. The men in brown first lobbed tear-gas shells and then fired in the air but the crowd continued to stone the police station, compelling sub-inspector Jadeja to fire at the mob in which a 17-year-old youth died.

news@khaleejtimes.com