Rajkot: A court in Veraval town of Gir Somnath district convicted five of the 41 persons on trial in the 2016 Una flogging case, while acquitting the others. The court reserved its decision on sentencing, which is expected to be announced on Tuesday.Speaking to TOI, district govt pleader Ketansinh Vala said that special atrocity court judge J J Pandya convicted five of the 41 accused who faced trial. “One accused died during the trial and the case against him was abated. The hearing on sentencing is complete, and the court is expected to deliver the sentences on Tuesday,” Vala said.The court convicted Ramesh Bhagvan Jadav, Rakesh Rasik Joshi, Nagji Daya Vaniya, Pramodgiri Rameshgiri Gauswami and Balvantgiri Gauswami under Sections 323, 324, 342 and 504 of the IPC, along with Sections 3(1)(d), 3(1)(e)(r)(s)(u) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Reacting to the verdict, the complainant, Vashram Sarvaiya, said they were not satisfied with the outcome.“Considering the manner in which we struggled for justice and what we suffered over the last 10 years, we are not satisfied with this conviction. The people who terrorized us were acquitted because the prosecution failed to prove their role,” Sarvaiya said.The FIR was registered at Una police station under Section 307 of the IPC and the Atrocities Act. The investigation was later handed over to the CID Crime, Gandhinagar, which filed a chargesheet in 2018.The prosecution submitted that Sarvaiya, his three brothers and their parents were assaulted in Una on July 11, 2016, while skinning a dead cow — their traditional occupation. Members of an upper-caste group accused them of slaughtering the animal.Four of the victims were stripped, tied to a car and paraded through the town while being flogged. The attackers recorded videos of the assault and circulated them on social media.After the incident, the Sarvaiya family renounced Hinduism and embraced Buddhism.
