Ahmedabad: In a shocking incident, a 21-year-old Dalit man was lynched for watching Garba dance hosted for upper-caste Patel community in Gujarat's Anand district on Saturday.
Eight people have arrested for the incident, said the police.
Jayesh Solanki, resident of Vankarvas area in Bhadrania village, was watching garba during Navaratri festivities with four other Dalit men near a house adjacent to a temple. Suddenly a member of Patel community made "derogatory remarks about their caste", said the police quoting a complaint filed in connection with the incident.
The accused said Dalits "do not have any right to watch garba. He made casteist remarks and asked some men to come to the spot", an officer at the Bhadran police station said.
Thereafter, the Patel men allegedly beat up the Dalits, banging Solanki's head against a wall. He was rushed to a hospital in Karamsad, where doctors declared him brought dead in the morning.
The incident took place around 4 am.
"We have registered an FIR under IPC sections related to murder and the Prevention of Atrocities Act against eight men," the official said.
Dismissing that it was a pre-meditated attack, Deputy SP (SC/ST cell) A M Patel said, "Jayesh was killed in the heat of the moment, as there was no rivalry between him and the accused. We are probing the case from all angles. The accused will be arrested soon."
Poll-bound Gujarat witnessed massive protests in July 2016 over the brutal thrashing of four Dalit men at a village in Una town.
With PTI inputs
