NE NEWS SERVICE
AMRELI, JUNE 14
A man was arrested for allegedly passing a casteist remark and insulting a Dalit man from Amreli district over his Facebook profile picture, which showed him sporting a moustache, and also over the use of suffix ”Sinh” in his name, police said on Sunday.
Complainant Vipul Parmar (24) said that the accused, identified as Rohit Vala, insulted him and hurled casteist slur over the use of ”Sinh” suffix in his name and profile picture on his Facebook account, which showed him sporting a moustache.
”Sinh” is a suffix usually used by men of the Rajput community in the state.
As per the FIR registered at Amreli taluka police station, the accused asked Parmar to remove his Facebook account because of the name and profile picture he used.
“We arrested the accused on Saturday night,” Deputy Superintendent of Police (SC/ST Cell), Amreli, Rajesh Oza, said.
In his complaint lodged on June 12, Parmar said that Vala visited him on the evening of June 11 to ask him to remove his Facebook account owing to his profile picture and name.
Later at night, he called him outside his house at Machiyala village in the district and hurled a casteist slur and used abusive words against him and his neighbours of the same community, who came out after hearing him shout.
An FIR was lodged against Vala under sections of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (related to insult, intimidate, and abuse a member of SC or ST community to humiliate him/her in public), and section 504 of the IPC (intentional insult), police said.
