Una Atrocity Case Acquittal (March 2026)

On 16 March 2026, a Special Atrocity Court in Veraval, Gir Somnath district, Gujarat, delivered its judgment in the decade-long trial arising from the Una flogging of July 2016. Additional Sessions Judge Jignesh Pandya convicted five of the 41 adults tried — Ramesh Jadav, Rakesh Joshi, Nagjibhai Vaniya, Pramodgiri Goswami, and Balwantgiri Goswami — under IPC sections 323, 324, 342, and 504, and under sections 3(1)(D) and 3(1)(E) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The remaining 35 were acquitted. On 17 March 2026, the court sentenced each of the five convicts to five years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000; all five had already served more than five years in custody, rendering the sentence effectively time-served. One accused, policeman Nirmalsinh Zala, had his case abated following his death during the trial; three other police officers — Narendradev Pandey, Kanchan Parmar, and Kanjibhai Chudasama — were acquitted outright. A juvenile accused was addressed separately. The court examined approximately 260 witnesses over the course of the proceedings. Heavier charges — including attempt to murder (IPC 307), kidnapping (IPC 365), criminal conspiracy (IPC 120-B), and relevant provisions of the IT Act — were not applied in the final judgment.

The case originated on 11 July 2016, near Mota Samadhiyala village in Una taluka, when four Dalit men from the Sarvaiya family — engaged in the caste-assigned labour of skinning dead cattle — were set upon by a group of self-styled cow vigilantes who accused them of cow slaughter. The attackers stripped the men, tied them to a vehicle, and beat them for several hours with wooden sticks, iron pipes, and plastic rods before parading them through Una town. Video footage of the assault circulated rapidly on social media, provoking nationwide outrage. Victim Vashram Sarvaiya and his father Balu Sarvaiya were among those who filed the complaint; multiple members of the family were directly affected.

The 2016 attack catalysed one of the most significant Dalit mobilisation waves in post-independence Gujarat. Under the leadership of activist Jignesh Mevani — who later won election as an Independent MLA and subsequently joined the Indian National Congress — protesters marched, blocked highways, and staged a symbolic mass refusal of caste labour ("we will no longer skin your dead cattle or lift carcasses"). National political leaders including Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi, and then-Chief Minister Anandiben Patel visited the affected region. The movement reframed Dalit demands beyond individual criminal accountability to encompass land rights and economic dignity.

The 2026 verdict was widely condemned by Dalit rights advocates as institutionalising impunity. Commentators noted that since all five convicts had already served their sentences, The Quint argued that all 40 defendants effectively walked free. Vibes of India identified five systemic failures in the outcome: a near-total acquittal rate; the meaninglessness of sentences already served; the complete exoneration of police despite allegations of collusion, illegal detention, and document forgery; the role of accused persons out on bail driving witnesses to court; and the government's non-delivery of land and employment promised to Dalit families in 2016. The verdict sits within Gujarat's broader pattern: the state recorded a conviction rate of just 3.065 percent in SC/ST Atrocities Act cases between 2018 and 2021, and only 5.8 percent by 2022 — the lowest in India — against a backdrop of 1,425 recorded Dalit atrocities in 2022 alone. Vashram Sarvaiya declared he would challenge the verdict in the Gujarat High Court and, if necessary, in the Supreme Court of India.