Gujarat: High Court notice to state government on plea seeking Thangadh probe report

In the plea, Veljibhai Rathod, father of the 16-year-old victim Mehul Rathod, sought a copy of the probe report.

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In his petition, Rathod said the state government had asked the then Principal Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Sanjay Prasad, to conduct a probe into the firing incident.

The petitioner said the report was completed the same year (2012) by Prasad, who submitted it to the then Chief Secretary but the government is yet to disclose the contents of the report.

He said he had sought the report through an RTI application but the government did not provide him the document, following which he sought the high court’s direction to the state to make available a copy of it to him.

The HC also asked the government to explain the reason in case it still does not want to provide the report to the petitioner.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths — Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod — were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town.

In August this year, the state government formed an SIT to probe the incident afresh after widespread protests by Dalits in the state. The government had also announced a Rs 2 lakh compensation to family of each of the deceased.