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Murder of Bhavnagar Dalit youth: No arrest yet, police bank on narco test

Sources said that police have recovered a dhariyu (a sharp-edged weapon with curved blade attacked to a long handle) and a blood-stained shirt from a place around 2.5 km away from the scene of crime.

Murder of Bhavnagar Dalit youth: No arrest yet, police bank on narco test In his complaint, Rathod’s father Kalu had stated that upper-caste men who were opposed to his son owning and riding a horse had killed him.

A MONTH ON, police are yet to make any arrest in the murder of a Dalit youth allegedly over owning and riding a horse at Timbi village of Bhavnagar district. The investigators have now decided to subject seven suspects to narco-analysis test to zero in on on the killers.

Pradeep Rathod, a 21-year-old Dalit was hacked to death while he was returning home from his farm on a horse on March 29. In his complaint, Rathod’s father Kalu had stated that upper-caste men who were opposed to his son owning and riding a horse had killed him. He had named Natubha Darbar, a resident of the village, as an accused in the complaint. Police had detained Darbar within hours of the incident. A day later, police had also detained Ghoghubha Gohil, a resident of neighbouring Piprali village, and his brother Jitubha Gohil after Kalu told police that the brothers had earlier threatened him and his son Pradeep over owning and riding the horse which they had purchased a few months ago.

Subsequently, police had detained four more suspects and recovered mobile phone of the victim from one of them. However, no one was arrested “for want of prima facie evidence”. Earlier this month, police had subjected the seven suspects to a forensic test called suspect detection system (SDS) at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Gandhinagar.

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“We are still awaiting the results of the SDS. Meanwhile, we have decided to subject the suspects to a narco-analysis test as it is more credible. We have got permission from sessions court of Bhavnagar for administering the test to the suspects, and we are now awaiting for the dates from the FSL. We are hopeful that the twin procedures will help in the investigation,” Pravin Mal, Bhavnagar Superintendent of Police said on Monday.

Sources said that police have recovered a dhariyu (a sharp-edged weapon with curved blade attacked to a long handle) and a blood-stained shirt from a place around 2.5 km away from the scene of crime. Sources claimed that investigators now have a clue as to what had happened on the evening of March 29, but still don’t know who had killed Pradeep.

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Last week, during an open hearing session in Gandhinagar, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had sought to know if the family members of the victims had been paid compensation and what measures were taken by the authorities to prevent a repeat of such incidents. In response, the Bhavnagar SP had submitted that police were regularly patrolling the village and nearby areas.

Meanwhile, Dalit activists said that if Bhavnagar police failed to achieve a breakthrough in the case in the coming days, they will demand handing over the probe to some other agency. “We are aware that the police are going for conducting a narco-analysis test on the suspects. But they need to crack the case soon else we shall be forced to demand that the investigation be handed over to some other agency,” Aravind Makwana, a Dalit activist of Bhavnagar, said.

First uploaded on: 01-05-2018 at 09:49 IST
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