Scheduled caste man hangs himself after decade of torment in Gujarat
TNN | Dec 15, 2021, 04.18 AM IST
AHMEDABAD: A man chronicled the torture he faced for a decade because of his caste and ultimately he hanged himself with his widowed mother’s sari on December 10, the International Human Rights Day. His diary found by his family members has now been considered his suicide note on the basis of which police have named two persons for abetting his suicide. The victim was a resident of Indiranagar near Lambha village.
The deceased, Dilip Solanki, 35, belonged to the Scheduled Caste Valimiki community. He lived with his mother Leela and was a daily wager.
Solanki’s relatives, including his sister and her two daughters, arrived later for the funeral rituals. When the family members were checking his belongings, they found his diary but as most of them were illiterate, they did not understand the contents.
The diary started recording his ordeal from February 2010 when one Vishal and his mother Hansa abused him with casteist slurs.
“They abused me, they abused my mother, they abused my community and religion, and I could not do anything,” Solanki wrote. “Had I been Dilipsinh Darbar and not Dilip Solanki that I am, I would not have faced such consequences.”
The diary noted that Vishal and Hansa used to abuse and thrash him and because he belonged to a particular section of society, he could not stop them, let alone retaliate.
The diary said that the two had links with some powerful people which gave them impunity. They continually tormented him and his family. He also wrote about being beaten by the two and how helpless he was.
On the basis of the diary, Aslali police on Monday charged the two for abetment to suicide. Meanwhile, they are trying to figure out Solanki’s connection to the mother-son duo.
