AHMEDABAD: A 20-year-old man from a scheduled caste (SC) was allegedly beaten by a group of ‘upper caste’ men in Mehsana on Friday evening, for sporting a moustache and twirling it.
The group of 100-odd men then forced the victim’s father to shave off his moustache.
A grab from the video Sanjay posted (L) and one from the one posted by the members of the 'upper caste'.They then uploaded a video of the episode on social media.
The incident occurred at Mota Kothasana village in Satlasana taluka of Mehsana district on December 6 — the death anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution who campaigned against caste discrimination.
The victim, Sanjay Parmar, an ITI student, is the son of a village panchayat employee, Ranchhod Parmar, and grandson of Mehsana social justice committee chairperson, Diva Parmar.
“On Friday evening, a mob gathered outside Sanjay’s house and started threatening and abusing him for sporting a moustache ‘like Darbars’.
They assaulted Sanjay and then forced his father Ranchhod to shave off his moustache,” said Diva, adding that the Darbars then uploaded a video, in which Sanjay is seen apologizing and promising that he will not do this thing (sport and twirl a moustache) again.
“Earlier on Friday morning, Sanjay had uploaded a video on social media in which he was seen twirling his moustache with a Gujarati song ‘Rana to Farvan’ being played. This did not go well with Darbars,” said DSP, B Division, Mukesh Vyas.
Vyas said that the cops at Satlasana police station have registered an FIR under sections of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Diva said efforts are being made by influential Darbar community members and political leaders to force a compromise.
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