VADODARA: Anand police on Wednesday arrested 17 persons for alleged brutalities on a dalit man and his mother , who were beaten up for skinning dead cattle Saturday last, in Kasor village of Sojitra taluka.Almost a year after the Una Dalit flogging incident, in a repeat of similar assault, Shailesh Rohit (21) and his mother Maniben (45), were allegedly beaten up by a group of people from upper caste Darbar ( Kshatriya ) community. The dalit youth and his mother were first subjected to verbal abuse and then thrashed by the mob at their residence in Rohitvaas.Based on the youth's complaint registered on Sunday, Anand police had issued notices to six accused whom the complainant had named in the complaint. All six were booked under sections 323, 506 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under sections of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.On Tuesday, Anand district superintendent of police Saurabh Singh and district collector Dhaval Patel had also visited Kasor and met the dalit family in presence of community leaders."The complainant gave us names of 14 more accused on Tuesday which were not given at the time of lodging the complaint. We have further taken statements of 20 other persons. The accused, who have been arrested will be produced before the court on Thursday and we will also seek their remand," Singh told TOI on Wednesday."The situation in the village is normal and we have kept enough round the clock bandobast with two police sub inspectors with other staff camping in the village and the spot where the incident took place," said Singh.The 17 accused who have been arrested by Sojitra police include the six accused named earlier by Shailesh and his mother at the time of registering the complaint. The remaining 11 are those named by the accused on Tuesday."All the accused were first issued notices to remain present before the investigating officer as per Supreme Court guidelines. When we interrogated the accused and they admitted to have committed the crime, they were arrested," Singh said.During the investigations, the cops have also come to know that on Saturday afternoon, just hours before the dalit family was attacked, the Shailesh and one of the accused had entered into an altercation at a 'mela' in the village."The group of accused had already threatened the dalit youth to stop skinning the dead cattle as according to them it was raising a stench in the locality. On Saturday afternoon, there was an altercation when the dalit youth complained to one of the accused that the decision to stop skinning will affect their only source of livelihood. It was after this altercation that the accused attacked the family," said an official.The 17 accused arrested include Vijay Solanki, Vijay Parmar, Jaimin Ramesh Parmar, Vinubhai Parmar, Dholo Parmar, Kaushik Parmar, Vipul Parmar, Bharat Parmar, Kiran Parmar, Kamlesh Parmar, Kaushik Solanki, Dharmendra Bariya, Jaimin Kanubhai Parmar, Ajit Solanki, Ghanshyam Parmar, Daxesh Parmar and Dilip Parmar.

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