Dalit youth beaten in Ahmedabad for adding ‘sinh’ to his name

Ahmedabad: In yet another incident in Gujarat, a Dalit youth was allegedly thrashed by upper caste community members on Tuesday evening, for using the suffix ‘Sinh’ (lion) with his name, which the Kshatriya community consider to be their entitlement.

Soon after adding Sinh to his name on Facebook, 22-year-old Maulik Jadhav started to have death threats from members of the Darbar (Kshatriya) community, said a TOI report. Jadhav had changed his name to MaulikSinh Jadhav on April 10.

As per the report, around six men allegedly thrashed Jadhav, hurled casteist slurs and abused him. However, he managed to escape the spot and reached Sonarkui police station. Jadhav, who is a member of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM) registered an FIR at the police station under various sections of the IPC and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Jadhav told TOI, “Using ‘sinh’ is not the prerogative of any community. My brothers and I decided to use ‘sinh’ with our name after which, I started getting abusive calls and threats from members of the Darbar community.”

In one more such incident on Sunday, a 40-year-old Dalit man, identified as Mukesh Savji Vaniya, was allegedly tied up and brutally flogged to death by three workers of a factory in Rajkot district, after he was attacked for collecting trash at factory’s vicinity.