Gujarat HC Refuses Plea For CBI Probe In Una Dalit Flogging Case [Read Order]

Not a rarest of rare case to direct CBI investigation, the bench said.

The Gujarat High Court has refused a plea for CBI investigation in the Una Dalit flogging incident.

Four Dalit youths, who were found skinning the carcass of a dead cow, were beaten up allegedly by ‘Gau Rakshaks’.

Thereafter, they were illegally put in the police lockup and there also they were beaten by police officials.

Kantibhai Bhikhabhai Chavda had approached the high court seeking a CBI investigation in the incident, contending that the state failed to protect the fundamental right of Dalits.

Rejecting the plea, a bench comprising Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice Vipul M Pancholi observed that the petitioner failed to establish that the accused were powerful and influential and therefore, the investigation has not proceeded in proper direction or investigation is biased.

The court also observed that the state had taken the said matter very seriously and immediately handed over the investigation to a team under the supervision of the highest officer of CID Crime.

From the material produced on record, it cannot be said that the investigation is prima facie biased or tainted. When the specialized investigation team of CID Crime has carried out the investigation in an impartial manner whereby other provisions of IPC as well as the Atrocities Act and the Information Technology Act are added while filing the charge-accused persons, we are of the view that petitioner has failed to point out that the present is a rarest of rare case wherein the investigation is required to be transferred to CBI, the court said.

Read the Order here.