india

Updated: May 22, 2019 23:53 IST

Six people have been arrested for allegedly clubbing a Dalit youth to death in Gujarat’s Rajkot district, the police said on Wednesday. Nineteen-year-old Rajesh Sondarva was brutally murdered by a group of eight men on Tuesday night, according to the police, which described it as a family rivalry.

But the relatives of the victim and neighbours demanded a probe by the state’s CID, and refused to take the body until their demand was met. They alleged the killing was a hate crime linked to his caste.

“The murder [of Rajesh] is a result of rivalry between the two families. Police protection was provided to whole family at their home. The murder took place away from their home on the outskirts of Manekwala,’’ said Balram Meena, superintendent of police, Rajkot.

The victim’s mother Kajalben said Rajesh was pursuing the murder case of his father Naji Sondarva, an RTI activist, who was killed last year by the same people who have been arrested for her son’s murder.

Dalit activist and Vadgam legislator Jignesh Mevani met the victim Rajesh Sondarva’s (19) family on Wednesday. “The boy had expressed fears of getting killed after his father was murdered, but police failed to protect him,” Mewani said.

Nanji was killed in March 2018.

An FIR in the Kotda Sangani police station in Rajkot said Nanji filed an RTI application over alleged financial irregularities in a road development project, which had irked sarpanch Mahendrasinh Jadeja, accortding to another police officer.

In his dying declaration, Rajesh named Jadeja, and others for his murder, the officer added.