In Gujarat’s Bharuch district, a Muslim boy died after he was allegedly beaten up for having an affair with a tribal girl. He was beaten up by the family members of the tribal girl on Thursday and had succumbed to his injuries by the next day.
The 18-year-old boy, a resident of Dharoli village, was in a relationship with a tribal girl from the neighbouring Boridra village. Allegedly, the girl’s parents were against her relationship and pressurized her to end it.
Speaking about the incident, Deputy Superintendent of police L K Zala said, “In the past one month, the girl had stopped meeting the boy, and this might have driven him to go to Boridra village to meet her. Her relatives found him in the village and beat him up with wooden sticks and iron rods.”
Reportedly on Thursday, the youth took his new KTM bike and went with his friend Viral Vasava, also from the same village, to his brother-in-law Moin Patel’s house in Ankleshwar. They didn’t return that night. The police said that both of them had parted ways.
At night, the youth’s elder brother got a call from Atul Vasava, a resident of Kurchi village near Boridra village. Atul informed him that his brother was beaten by some of the youth in the village.
The elder brother and his father rushed towards the village. They found the youth lying on the roadside in a pool of blood. He was injured in the head, hands and legs. His damaged bike was found lying on the roadside.
They rushed him to the Jayaben Modi hospital in Bharuch in an ambulance. On the way, the youth said that he was beaten up by Boridra boys with iron rods and wooden sticks. He later succumbed to his injuries on Friday morning.
That night the brother lodged a complaint with the police against Ajay Vasava, Vijay Vasava, Vikas Vasava, Dinesh Vasava, Akshay Vasava, and five others with Jhagadia police station. Police booked them under various sections of the IPC. After his death, police added IPC 302 (murder) to the charges and began an investigation.
As the news of the youths death spread, the police have also deployed personnel in large numbers in both the villages to prevent any communal clashes between the two communities. The body of the youth was buried outside the village outskirts on Friday.
