Mumbai: A 35-year-old man, identified as Somnath Veyankat Suryawanshi, died in Parbhani district jail early today (December 15). Suryawanshi, who worked as a labourer in Pune’s Chakan and was pursuing law, was visiting his family in Parbhani’s Shastri Nagar when he was picked up along with 50 other Dalit Bahujan youth, for their alleged involvement in the violence that broke out in the city after the desecration of the Constitution’s replica on December 10.
Suryawanshi, who belonged to the Wadar community, a Nomadic Tribe (NT) in Maharashtra, was sent to judicial custody on December 14, and within hours, he died in Parbhani district jail.
The custodial death of Somnath Suryawanshi — a Bhim Sainik belonging to the Wadar community — in Parbhani is gut wrenching, sickening and intolerable to say the least.
What is more intolerable that his death happened in judicial custody despite his bail application being…
— Prakash Ambedkar (@Prksh_Ambedkar) December 15, 2024
According to the special inspector general (IG) of Nanded range, Shahaji Umap, who is overseeing the investigation, Suryawanshi was moved to the civil hospital in Parbhani after he complained of “chest pain.”
“He suddenly complained of chest pain, and we moved him from Parbhani jail to the hospital. He died in the hospital,” Umap claimed over a phone call. When asked about the alleged torture and the complaints that have been emerging en masse since the police launched their combing operation across Dalit Bahujan bastis in Parbhani, Umap said, “Suryawanshi was not tortured.” A few minutes after the phone call ended, Umap called back to stress that Suryawanshi belonged to “a Nomadic Tribe and was not from the Dalit community”. “Please mention he is not Dalit in your story,” he told this reporter.
The Wire, in a detailed article on December 13, reported how the incident unfolded in Parbhani on December 10 and 11. A man, identified by the police as ‘Sopan Pawar’, had traveled pillion on a bike toward the Ambedkar statue in the city centre. There, Pawar damaged the replica of the Constitution. He was thrashed and apprehended by the Ambedkarites who gathered immediately.
Also read: Parbhani Violence: Police Accused of Beating up Dalit Youth, Carrying Out Combing Operations
It may be noted that even before the police could ascertain Pawar’s name and whereabouts, IG Umap had announced him to be a “lunatic person.” It was later found that Pawar’s real name is Datta, not Sopan, as initially claimed by the police, and that he belongs to the dominant Maratha community, contrary to the Dhangar caste claim made by the police.
The Wire spoke to a few villagers in Mirzapur, 28 kilometers from Parbhani town, where Pawar lived. According to them, Pawar had no past criminal record and was a heavy drinker. “But he was never a nuisance in the village, let alone cause any casteist violence. Unable to handle his drinking problem, he went to a rehabilitation center in Akola. Only a few days ago, he returned from the rehab centre,” claimed an Ambedkarite youth from Mirzapur village.
Just minutes before the desecration incident on December 10, the ultra-right organisation Sakal Hindu Samaj, known for its provocative speeches and violence in the state, had organised a protest sit-in in Parbhani to “condemn violence against Hindus in Bangladesh.” According to villagers from Mirzapur, several youths from the village, including Pawar, had attended the protest. This is an angle the police have overlooked in their investigation so far.
Extent of police violence
Suryawanshi’s death exposes the extent to which the police have resorted to violence in Parbhani. Activists say that Suryawanshi, was pursuing law and was an anti-caste activist himself. According to his lawyer, Pawan Jondhale, Suryawanshi had no role in the protest of December 11 and was rounded up, along with many men from his slum settlement, mercilessly beaten and arrested by the police. On December 14, Jondhale had moved a bail application citing Suryawanshi’s upcoming law exams. He argued that Suryawanshi would miss his exams if not released on bail immediately.
Like him, several other youths arrested for “vandalising public and private property” have accused the police of extreme violence. Many videos are circulating showing the local and State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) unleashing violence on men and women in Dalit settlements like Priyadarshini Nagar and Bhim Nagar in Parbhani.
In one such CCTV footage, accessed by The Wire, the police can be seen surrounding a woman and mercilessly thrashing her in an open ground in Priyadarshini Nagar in Parbhani. The woman, identified as Vachala Bhagwan Manavte, worked in a local hospital nearby and had just returned home after work when the police entered her basti. As the police unleashed violence on many young men and women in the slum, Manavte says she took her mobile out to record the police’s act of violence. “In no time, they headed towards me, dragged me to the floor and kicked me in my face and private parts,” Manavte says. The CCTV footage supports the claim made by her. The woman is presently recuperating in a local hospital, with injuries all over her body.
Umap has claimed that the police had to use “force” to control the mob. However, Manavte was not part of any mob, as seen in the video, and was attacked unprovoked. Two minor girls, both under 12 and from the Dalit community, have also been beaten up and named in one of the eight FIRs filed by the police.
Activist Rahul Pradhan, who has been working on the ground since the incident, told The Wire that the police attacked youths with “murderous anger.” “Almost all of those in custody have multiple injuries and were sent to police custody and then to judicial custody without medical treatment,” Pradhan claimed.
His claim holds true considering Suryawanshi’s sudden death in jail. When an accused person is produced before court, the magistrate is legally bound to ask the accused if they were ill-treated while in custody. The magistrate is also legally bound to check the medical reports of the person in both police and judicial custody. Jondhale, who is handling the cases of the men and women arrested in the case, shared that the police had surrounded each of those arrested, making it impossible for them to raise complaints of violence in court.
Pradhan says the case is identical to what happened in Bhima Koregaon in 2018, where the police went on a witch hunt, attacking and arresting Ambedkarite men and women across the state. “The state should set up an independent judicial inquiry headed by a sitting judge into the incident,” he demanded, along with a judicial magistrate inquiry into Suryawanshi’s death.
As soon as the news of Suryawanshi’s custodial death broke, Jondhale and several Ambedkarite activists gathered outside the civil hospital in Parbhani, demanding an in-camera inquest of the body. “We have also demanded that the body be sent to Aurangabad for an independent post-mortem,” he told The Wire.