SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Bhuj: It took three days of sustained pressure from a civil rights body before police in Gujarat’s Kutch district registered a case against five Forest Department employees accused of assaulting a Muslim youth from Loria village near Bhuj on Friday, August 28.
The Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) said it had been approaching the authorities from the day of the incident itself, pushing for both a first information report (FIR), which sets a criminal investigation in motion, and a thorough inquiry, but that police did not act on this immediately despite the gravity of what was alleged.
“After three days of continuous efforts and representations by APCR, an FIR has finally been registered against five employees of the Forest Department,” the organisation said in a statement, naming all five as accused in the case.
It added pointedly that a person alleging a serious physical assault should not have to keep returning to the authorities before a criminal case gets registered at all.
How the assault unfolded
According to APCR’s account, the victim, Farid Haji Mer, was first stopped by Forest Department staff who asked for his name, and it was only after learning he was Muslim that the employees turned on him and beat him, the organisation alleged.
The injuries he sustained were severe enough to require hospitalisation. He remains under treatment at GK General Hospital in Bhuj, where he has already undergone a surgical procedure.
‘Government employees must protect, not violate, rights’
APCR framed the FIR’s registration as a significant development precisely because those named in it hold government positions. “Government employees are expected to exercise their authority within the law and to protect, rather than violate, the rights and dignity of citizens,” the organisation said, adding that officials found to have assaulted a citizen or abused their office should face consequences accordingly.
The organisation has committed to providing Mer’s family with legal assistance and guidance as the case moves forward, and said it will keep tracking developments. Its list of demands to the authorities was a fair and impartial investigation, a specific probe into whether religious discrimination played a role in the assault, statements recorded from every relevant witness, due weight given to the medical evidence and disciplinary or legal action against whoever is found responsible.
“Public office cannot be used as protection against the law,” APCR said.
SOURCE : SIASAT
