Farmer’s immolation: Police harassed deceased, says family

Express News Service: Rajkot: Wed Feb 23 2011,

Jobadhan Gadhvi (45), had set himself on fire on Monday at the Rapar mamlatdar office as a protest to the inaction by the civil administration to not provide him with details related to his ancestral land. A day later, his family has alleged that the local police led by Sub-Inspector R G Parmar left no stone unturned to harass the now deceased farmer.

They alleged the police framed his brother Malavdan as an accused in a case Gadhvi had filed against a land grabber, and even refused to admit further complaints and also issued threats. Parmar has been suspended following Gadhvi’s death, but the family says it’s too little now.

Parmar is reportedly a cousin of Davri village talati Pravina Jadav, who has also been suspended.

Jadav allegedly never furnished details sought by Gadhvi through an RTI application, while Parmar has been accused of harassing and threatening the farmer for seeking information and registering a police complaint.

Gadhvi was living with his mother and wanted to get the revenue details of his 14 acre land in Davri village, which was last owned by his grandfather Ramdas.

Devdutt, a nephew of Gadhvi said: “The land in question involving survey number 200, 245 and 399 was sold by one Hitesh Sorathiya using fake papers in the name of Ramdas. For two years, my uncle was trying to get the details of the fake transaction.”

According to the family, Gadhvi had filed his first RTI application in January 2009. Since then he wrote nothing less than 50 letters to the talati and mamlatdar, but in vain. Devdutt said in June 2009 he registered a complaint against Sorathiya for land grabbing, but Parmar made Malavdan an accused in the case.

Devdutt added: “After Malavdan was made a co-accused, my uncle wrote to the district panchayat president, district collector, then Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Narendra Modi about the harassment by the police and the talati, but there was no response. Later, Parmar refused to register any further complaints. When Jobardan complained against Jadav to higher authorities, Parmar threatened him.”

On January 24, 2011, Gadhvi went on a hunger strike at the office of the Mamlatdar A Zala, who promised to provide the details in 15 days. On February 15, Gadhvi wrote a letter to Zala, the district panchayat and the collector, announcing his plans of self-immolation “He had clearly mentioned the date and time in the letter, but the administration did not take any action,” said Devdutt.