Gujarat govt may withdraw ‘minor cases’ against Dalits, Thakors, Rajputs

Confirming this, Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja told The Indian Express, “I have been asking the Director General of Police and various district Superintendents of Police to provide the data of these cases. It’s a big task to collect the data (of this nature) and so, it is taking time. Once we get the data, I will place it before the Chief Minister and only after that a decision can be taken.”

Jadeja said it would be difficult to give an estimate of the number of cases that may be considered for withdrawal.

“The information has to be coordinated and compiled from all 500 police stations and so we have not got any consolidated figure (so far),” Jadeja said.

In 2016, a spontaneous Dalit agitation spread across the state following the public flogging of seven members of a Dalit family in Una of Gir-Somnath district.

In 2018, Karni Sena, a group of Rajput community, had agitated demanding a ban on the film Padmaavat.

In October last year, a number of cases of violence were reported from Gujarat against migrants from North India after a migrant from Bihar was arrested for raping a minor girl in Sabarkantha district. The state government had then stated that Alpesh Thakor-led Kshatriya-Thakor Sena was mainly behind the attacks.