Victims’ kin yet to be compensated: Court notice to cops, home dept for failure to comply with order

A civil court in Chhota Udepur district has issued a show cause notice to the state home department and the district police for the failure to pay compensation as per its order in March 2021 to the families of two victims of a 2009 incident of mob lynching in Kadwal village of Jetpur Pavi taluka. On the suspicion of being thieves, three men were stoned to death in the incident that had occurred near the police outpost.

On Thursday, Additional Civil Judge Atul Kumar issued a show cause notice to the Police Sub-inspector incharge of Jetpur Pavi police station, the Superintendent of Police of Chhota Udepur district, and the Gujarat Home Department Secretary seeking a reply within four weeks to evade being “committed to civil prison”. In two separate civil decrees granted on March 18, 2021, to the families of two of the three deceased–Jaggu Salat and Gajra Salat–the state police department was ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 6,00,824 and Rs 8,98,052 respectively.

The notice, which has also been copied to DGP Gujarat and Vadodara Range Inspector General of Police, states, “You are called upon to appear in person and show cause within four weeks why you should not be committed to the civil prison in execution of the decree passed against you.” The move came after the families of the deceased sought the arrest of the officials due to the failure to pay compensation.

The incident happened on July 22, 2009, in Kadwal village, 13 kilometres from Pavi Jetpur, when an angry mob stoned three men to death. The mob had tied the three deceased persons to trees outside a police outpost and allegedly obstructed the police from rescuing the three men. While two persons died on the spot after hours of stone pelting, the third victim died on his way to the hospital. Chhota Udepur Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Sharma refused to comment.