After Dalit boy picks up cricket ball, his uncle’s thumb chopped off in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Seven men from an upper caste community allegedly chopped off the thumb of a 30-year-old Dalit man with a sword at Kakoshi village in Sidhpur taluka of Patan district on Sunday.
The reason for the attack on Kirti Parmar was that his brother, Dhiraj, had objected to members of the upper caste community scolding his nephew for picking up a cricket ball when they were playing in a school playground.
Dhiraj Parmar filed a complaint at Kakoshi police station on Monday, accusing Kuldeepsinh Rajput, Siddhrajsinh Rajput, Rajdeepsinh Darbar, Jaswantsinh Rajput, Chakubha Lakshmanji, Mahendrasinh Rajpur, all residents of Sidhpur, and an unknown man, of attacking Kirti.
Dhiraj said Kuldeep had scolded his nephew for picking up the ball when Kuldeep and the others were playing cricket in the playground of ID Selia High School. Dhiraj intervened and stopped Kuldeep from scolding his nephew. Things escalated to a verbal spat. They even took Dhiraj's mobile phone number, saying they would teach him a lesson after the match.
After the match, Kuldeep and about 10 others went to Dhiraj and Kirti, and began fighting with them. As other people intervened, the Parmars and Kuldeep reached a compromise, after which Kuldeep and his aides left. Dhiraj and his nephew also left but Kirti remained there, at a tea stall. At around 6.30pm on Sunday, Kuldeep and six came back in three vehicles, armed with swords and sticks.
On finding Kirti alone, they struck him with a sword, chopping off the thumb of his left hand and wounding him on his right hand. They also beat him up badly and left him there unconscious.
A shopkeeper phoned Dhiraj, who rushed back and then took Kirti to a nearby hospital. He was later shifted to a hospital near Vaishnodevi Circle in Ahmedabad, where his condition is said to be stable. The in-charge SP of Patan, Vishakha Dabral, said two men have been arrested and teams have been formed to nab the others involved. Kakoshi police lodged a complaint for rioting, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons, causing hurt, criminal intimidation and using abusive words along with the charges under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against seven men.