Mujahid Nafees, the convener of the Gujarat Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), a private organisation that claims to work for the constitutional rights of minorities in the state, issued a legal notice to the Gujarat Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department, state DGP, and Kheda district police on Thursday, seeking action against “erring police officials responsible for the flogging” of Muslim men in Undhela village in Kheda.
The legal notice, sent through his lawyer Anand Yagnik, states that despite the fact that the atrocity was committed at the behest of police officers, “no action has been taken/initiated till date in complete violation of all rights of those flogged by those who are responsible for maintaining law and order under the power.”
Outrage was sparked by video footage of a man flogging those arrested for allegedly pelting stones at a garba event earlier this week in Kheda. It was later revealed that the person seen flogging the men was a police officer.
Mujahid Nafees, the convener of the Gujarat Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), a private organisation that claims to work for the constitutional rights of minorities in the state, issued a legal notice to the Gujarat Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department, state DGP, and Kheda district police on Thursday, seeking action against “erring police officials responsible for the flogging” of Muslim men in Undhela village in Kheda.
The legal notice, sent through his lawyer Anand Yagnik, states that despite the fact that the atrocity was committed at the behest of police officers, “no action has been taken/initiated till date in complete violation of all rights of those flogged by those who are responsible for maintaining law and order under the power.”
Outrage was sparked by video footage of a man flogging those arrested for allegedly pelting stones at a garba event earlier this week in Kheda. It was later revealed that the person seen flogging the men was a police officer.
Regarding the video clips, Nafees’ legal notice states, “…there is a full-fledged videography clearly showing the perpetrators in action and yet most unfortunately your good offices have failed to act upon it despite more than 48 hours having passed since the same came to light.” Such blatant violation not only violates the protected right under Article 21, but also the entire constitutional spirit of a civilised society… It is most unfortunate that your good offices have slept over the incident, giving it a communal hue, in complete abdication of the duties that the law of the land imposes on your good selves… It is stated and submitted that the law includes a full-fledged mechanism for ensuring punishment to the violators.
The legal notice adds that “the police personnel who are responsible for flogging and are yet to be identified” and that the act of public flogging “was nothing but to undignify (sic) the accused who belong to the minority community and thereby to strip them off, of all their fundamental and statutory rights.”