Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on July 25 granted regular bail to four main accused in the July 2016 case of flogging Dalit men by purported cow vigilantes in Una in Gir Somnath district.
This is the first time in the last six years that the accused have been granted bail by a court of law.
The HC observed that the petitioners have already undergone pre-conviction imprisonment of almost six years, and the trial in the case has not progressed substantially.
The accused were part of a group of purported cow vigilantes who assaulted some Dalit men for skinning a cow carcass at Mota Samadhiyala village on July 11, 2016.
Justice Nikhil Kariel of the high court on Monday granted regular bail to the four main accused while barring them from entering Gir Somnath district till the depositions of the first informant and the victims were over in the trial court.
The accused Ramesh Jadav, Pramodgiri Goswami, Balwantgiri Goswami and Rakesh Joshi have been allowed to enter the district only to attend the trial court hearings.
While granting bail, the HC observed that the accused have spent six years in jail, which is more than the maximum of five years in the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and more than half of the maximum 10 years under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 395 (dacoity) of the Indian Penal Code under which they were booked.
The HC also issued notice to the secretary of the state Legal Department, seeking a response by August 5, and directed him to make appropriate arrangements for the conclusion of the trial.
In the incident, videos of which caused outrage across the nation, the victims were tied to a vehicle and thrashed for allegedly skinning a slaughtered cow, after which a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged at Una police station.
The high court said it had found the special public prosecutor appointed in the case was not present on several occasions at the trial court.
This story was originally published in thewire.in . Read the full story here