State high court will pronounce its verdict in the case on Thursday, October 19.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Five Muslim men who were publicly flogged in Gujarat’s Kheda district in October last year have refused a settlement with the four accused policemen.
At the hearing of the case in Gujarat High Court on Monday, senior advocate Prakash Jani, appearing for the accused officers, told the two-judge bench that the Muslim complainants had decided not to accept the compensation after consulting their family members, The New Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
The court recorded the complainants’ statement regarding no compromise with the police officials. The verdict in the case will now be pronounced on Thursday (October 19), the report said.
In October 2022, a group of Muslim men allegedly threw stones at a garba site near a mosque at Undhela village of Kheda. The following day, five Muslims accused of being involved in the incident — Jahirmiya Malek, Maksudabanu Malek, Sahadmiya Malek, Sakilmiya Malek and Shahidraja Malek — were dragged out in public, tied to a pole and beaten with a stick by the police as a crowd cheered.
Videos of the flogging showed the five men being asked to apologise to the public. The men moved the high court, contending that they were the victims of police violence and demanded action against the officers.
At a hearing last week, the accused officials — Inspector A.V. Parmar, sub-inspector D.B. Kumavat, constable Rajubhai Rameshbhai Dabhi and head constable Kanaksinh Laxmansinh — urged the high court to consider not punishing them. They submitted that they could be directed to pay compensation to the complainants instead, the report said.
The policemen, facing contempt charges, told a bench of Justices A.S. Supehia and Gita Gopi that hitting people on their buttocks does not amount to custodial torture.
