As many as 180 people have been arrested in five districts of Gujarat by the police for targeting migrants, especially from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Violent clashes broke out between locals and non-Gujaratis earlier this week after an infant was allegedly raped by a migrant from Bihar. According to a report in The Indian Express, protests erupted in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Patan, Sabarkantha and Mehsana after a man identified as Ravindra Sahu was arrested by the police for the crime that took place in Sabarkantha district last week.
The report said that Sahu hails from Bihar and is accused of raping a 14-month-old girl.
DGP Shivanand Jha confirmed that angry people from a particular community targeted the non-Gujaratis after it emerged that a migrant had raped a minor girl.
According to police, the victim belongs to the Thakor community. Police said that people with links from the community targeted migrants when they learned about the crime and asked them to leave the state.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor has demanded that within 72 hours the police must withdraw the cases against members of his community. He said that people who have been booked the police are ‘innocent’. Thakor is the president of ‘Kshatriya Thakor Sena’ which has come under the police scanner for attacking the migrants, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Thakor, a prominent OBC leader in the state, has also announced that he will sit on day-long ‘Sadbhavna Upvaas’ outside Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on October 8 to seek justice for the girl and her family.
“I appeal for peace to all those behind these incidents. There could be members from our community and Sena but no such instruction (to launch attacks) was given out from our side (Thakor Sena). This is to only defame us and the Sena. We are only aiming at peace and employment in the state,” he told IE.
“I demand that the rape case be tried by a fast-track court… the accused should get the death sentence,” he said.
According to Thakor Sena, police have registered 50 FIRs and named nearly 500 people across six districts and Ahmedabad city.
“How can you name somebody in the FIR who was not there at all? We are demanding police withdraw cases against all these persons within 72 hours. We will take legal recourse if the demand was not met,” Thakor added.