A special court on Friday acquitted former Gujarat University vice-chancellor Parimal Trivedi by granting him the benefit of the doubt in a decade-old atrocity case, in which he was accused of using casteist abuse against a lecturer.
Additional district judge B J Somani acquitted Trivedi after the prosecution examined 18 witnesses. The hearing in the case was expedited after Gujarat high court pulled up the trial court for the delay in completing the trial on a complaint made by the accused.
A history lecturer at GLS College Pankaj Shrimali filed a complaint against Trivedi on May 3, 2008. Shrimali and Trivedi allegedly had a tiff over an administrative issue. Trivedi was booked under the Atrocities Act by University police. The HC protected him from arrest initially. Police twice sought to close the case by filing summary reports, but courts rejected them on both occasions. Ultimately, Trivedi was arrested and released on bail the same day in 2012.
The trial against Trivedi began in 2012. The high court shifted the case from the city sessions court to another court in the Mirzapur rural court campus, over complaints against the judicial officer. Final arguments concluded on Thursday and the court pronounced its verdict on Friday, as the HC had set an August 31 a deadline for the trial.
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