Gir Somnath (Gujarat), March 17 A special court on Tuesday sentenced five convicts in the 2016 Una flogging case, in which four Dalit men were beaten for trying to skin the carcass of a cow, to five years in prison and a fine of Rs 5,000 each.
The day before, the special court in Veraval convicted five people and acquitted 35 others in the flogging case. The incident had triggered widespread protests across the country at the time.
On Tuesday, the court of special judge JJ Pandya, dealing with cases of atrocities against SC/STs, sentenced the five accused to a five-year prison term under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
In addition to the maximum sentence of five years, the court also sentenced them to three years under sections 323 and 324 of the Indian Penal Code, one year under section 342, and two years under section 504. All sentences will run concurrently.
The incident occurred on July 11, 2016, in Mota Samadhiyala village near the town of Una in the Gir-Somnath district, when four Dalit youths were skinning the carcass of a cow that had died earlier in another village, as part of their traditional profession.