More than 150 Dalits embraced Buddhism in Gujarat on Thursday reportedly as a symbol of protest over alleged inaction of the State Government in the death of Dalit youth’s in judicial custody last month.
The Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, requires the permission of the State Government before religious conversion. Hence the agitating Dalits in Amreli town completed a legal procedure by collecting requisite forms from the district collector’s office and returned them after attaching necessary documents and change their faith. Post submission of the forms, they took a procession.
Jignesh Sondarva, 29 died in Amreli sub jail. The agitators are demanding stern action against the jail authority and CBI inquiry in the case. Sondarva was arrested by the police on June 12 for allegedly consuming liquor and was sent to judicial custody after he failed to deposit the bail money. According to the sources, he had quarrelled with four inmates there, who bang him against the wall of barrack. He sustained serious injuries and was hospitalised but succumbed there on June 14.