A sessions court in Gujarat ordered that the trial in 2016 Una Dalit flogging case be done on a daily basis from July 29, the Deccan Herald reported on Monday. The District and Sessions court of Veraval pronounced the order while allowing the application moved by Vashram Sarvaiya, one of the men who was beaten up by cow vigilantes in Gujarat. Sarvaiya had sought speedy trail in the case.

In his plea filed on May 31, Sarvaiya had said that much time had passed since the assault on him and his family members by cow vigilantes, but they were still awaiting justice, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

“The court has allowed our application for conducting the trial on a daily basis,” MG Parmar, an advocate who represents those attacked, told Deccan Herald. “The daily trial will start from 29th July.”

Parmar claimed that in the past three years only 38 witnesses, out of nearly 300, have been examined in the court. He added that the prosecution and the defence had opposed the plea.

In November 2018, Sarvaiya had also written to President Ram Nath Kovind about the case and had said that former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had failed to keep the promises she made to them in 2016 following the incident.

On July 11, 2016, more than 40 men from the upper caste Darbar community had assaulted seven members of the Sarvaiya family for skinning a dead cow in Gir Somnath district’s Una town. The Sarvaiyas were leather tanners and skinning dead cattle was part of their traditional occupation. But the assailants accused them of cow slaughter. During the attack, four of the Sarvaiya brothers were stripped, tied to the back of a car and beaten with sticks and iron rods, while some of the attackers filmed the assault. Following widespread criticism, the state government had promised speedy justice by appointing a special court and a special public prosecutor.

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