Dalits in the city on Monday carried out a rally from the Ahmedabad collector’s office to the police commissioner’s office demanding an FIR against a sadhu of the Swaminarayan sect. A video of the sadhu Vishwa Vallabh Dast making derogatory remarks about the community had gone viral some days ago. Since then members of the community have registered their protest and have demanded an FIR. Vadgam MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani who also joined the rally said that they have already approached both the DGP Shivanand Jha and the police commissioner AK Singh in the matter. “The DGP has promised us action by today evening,” said Mevani. He said earlier the DGP had asked the city police commissioner to check the authenticity of the video. “We met the police commissioner who informed us that they had begun investigations into the authenticity of the video and it was found that the video was not tampered with nor was it morphed. We will now see what action the police will be taking,” said Mevani. Earlier when he met Jha in Gandhinagar Mevani had also said that such utterances and videos also spread enmity among communities. Swami Dev Prakash of the sect said that the video was several years old. “It is an old video. We think of Dalits and everyone else as our brethrens. If it has hurt anyone’s sentiments we are willing to apologise too,” said Prakash.

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