Mevani alleges 'inaction' in RTI activist murder, suspended from Assembly

Just after the question hour ended on Friday in the ongoing budget session of the Gujarat assembly and as the House was proceeding for the business of the day, Mevani, legislator from the Vadgam constituency, raised questions over the PSI's arrest in the Sanodar village incident, where an RTI activist was hacked to death inside his house on March 2. 

Mevani started asking questions to Minister of Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja and later to Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani. Speaker Rajendra Trivedi asked him to sit down. Instead, Mevani started shouting and raising slogans and showing placards with questions related to why PSI Solanki wasn't arrested in the Dalit murder case? 

Angered by this display, the speaker once again asked him to sit down immediately otherwise he would have Mevani evicted. Not getting a response, Trivedi ordered the sergeants to forcibly have Mevani removed from the House and suspended him for the day. 

"There is a provision under the Atrocity Act of wilful negligence in duty. Between 2009 and 2021, Amrabhai Boricha, an RTI activist from Sanodar village in Ghogha Tehsil of Bhavnagar district, was continuously assaulted 13 times and 13 offences were also registered. He kept on asking for protection from the police, but the police did not listen. 

"He kept asking the concerned PSI Solanki. Eventually he was killed in his house in broad daylight by a group of people. An FIR has been lodged against the negligent PSI separately, on top of the FIR for the murder. Despite that, even after 17 days of the crime, Solanki hasn't been arrested," said Mevani. 

"My question in the House was about the relationship the PSI had with the Gujarat CM and the Home Minister, so that he was shielded from being arrested. So I was suspended for the day, following my protest and questions in the house," alleged Mevani. 

According to his family members, Amrabhai Boricha, 50, was attacked with spears, iron pipes, and swords. 

According to sources, the Boricha family is the lone Dalit family in Sanodar village, primarily dominated by the Kshatriya community.