‘Delay in justice took his life’: 14 years on, Gujarat families seek answers

Almost 14 years ago, three young Dalit men were killed in alleged police firing in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district, in what remains one of the most sensitive and controversial cases of its kind in the state in recent years.

Earlier this week, the father of one of the three men died on the railway tracks in Thangadh, allegedly by suicide, barely metres from a memorial erected to the memory of the youths – Mehul Rathod, Prakash Parmar, and Pankaj Sumra.

Prakash Parmar’s father Babubhai had died of heart failure in 2015. After Pankaj Sumra’s father Amarshi Sumra died on Wednesday night, only one of the three grieving fathers now survives. Valji Rathod, the father of Mehul Rathod, told The Indian Express he believed it was the failure to get justice for their sons that had in some way led to the deaths of both Babubhai and Amarshi.

“We believe it is the delay in justice that finally took the life of Amarshi Sumra, just like it did of Babubhai Parmar a decade ago,” Valji Rathod said. Mehul Rathod, Prakash Parmar, and Pankaj Sumra were allegedly shot dead by police in two separate but related incidents on September 22 and 23, 2012, which followed a clash between Dalits and non-Dalits at a local fair.

Prakash Parmar was 26 years old when he was killed. Mehul Rathod and Pankaj Sumra were only 17 and 16 respectively. “Amarshi Lakha Sumra, the 53-year-old father of Pankaj Sumra, died at 10.21 pm on August 26 after he was run over by the 12268 Hapa-Mumbai Central Duronto Express as the train crossed Thangadh,” ASI Jagdish Dhoraliya of Government Railway Police, Surendranagar, said.

Police have registered an Accidental Death (AD) report. But the three Dalit families see a link between Amarshi’s death and those of his son and the two other youths in 2012. “No one can really comprehend a father’s grief over the loss of his son.

These three men, Amarshibhai, Valjibhai, and Babubhai, went through pain that is hard to describe,” Vinu Bagda, Amarshi Sumra’s younger brother, said. “Two families have been completely destroyed. I am the only one (of the three fathers) left now.

I have no support any more. Amarshibhai would constantly ask me to stay strong, but now he is gone himself,” Valji Rathod said. Vinu Bagda said Amarshi was dismayed at the way justice seemed to be denied to his son. “He would say that the case goes on and on without any conclusion… This time of the year is particularly hard for us because preparations have begun for the Tarnetar fair during which his son was killed,” Vinu said.

Tarnetar is a traditional ‘matchmaking’ fair that is held in Thangadh around this time every year to celebrate the legend of Draupadi’s ‘swayamvar’ from the Mahabharata. “Amarshi had spoken with his daughter a couple of days ago, and she had told him she regretted no longer having a brother with whom she could celebrate Raksha Bandhan.

This may have exacerbated his grief,” Vinu said. The two brothers had met four days before Amarshi died. “He told me that he no longer had the will to live. I told him that he should not think in this way, and tried to reassure him that ultimately justice would be done,” Vinu said.