Parbhani violence: Fadnavis announces judicial probe, suspends police inspector for using excessive force

Nagpur: A judicial inquiry will be conducted into the violence that erupted in Maharashtra’s Parbhani district following the vandalism of a replica of the Constitution on December 10, chief minister Devendra Fadanavis announced on Friday. He added that the local police inspector, Ashok Ghorband, has been suspended for using excessive force against the protesters.

The announcement came after the Opposition had continuously raised the matter of the police allegedly using excessive force against the protesters, who were mostly from the Dalit community. The custodial death of 35-year-old Somnath Suryawanshi, a law student who was arrested in connection with the violence, was also a result of police brutality, the Opposition had claimed.

In his reply to both houses of the state legislature, Fadnavis said the violence was a systematic attempt by certain elements of society who wanted to disturb social harmony. “The police and district administration handled the issue very sensibly and succeeded in dispersing the mob on the day of the incident. However, about 70 people staged a rail blockade, and a mob of about 400 people ransacked public and private property after the silent march the day after [the Constitution replica was vandalised]. Thousands of other protesters maintained peace. The violence led to the loss of private property worth ₹1.90 crore,” he said.

Fadnavis added that the desecration of the Constitution replica was an act of a mentally ill person, 47-year-old Sopan Pawar. He also rejected allegations that the Sakal Hindu Samaj, a conglomeration of right-wing outfits, was responsible for the violence. The organisation had held a rally in Parbhani the same day that the Constitution replica was vandalised.

“It is not true that the desecration was the result of the Sakal Hindu Samaj morcha held in the city that very morning and the speeches in it,” Fadnavis said. “The morcha was in support of minorities in Bangladesh and not a single word was uttered about the Constitution. The accused did not attend the Sakal Hindu Samaj morcha.”

While speaking about the custodial death of Suryawanshi, Fadnavis said that the 35-year-old had a respiratory problem and had old scars on his body. “He himself had told the court during his hearing that the police did not use any aggressive force or third-degree [torture] on him,” Fadnavis said. The state will provide financial assistance of ₹10 lakh each to Suryawanshi’s kin, he added.

The chief minister also appealed to the Opposition to cooperate with the state government in maintaining social harmony and not support antisocial elements that try to disturb it.

Opposition leaders expressed disappointment with the chief minister’s response to the incident, with Congress leader Nitin Raut calling it “unsatisfactory and incapable of delivering justice”.

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Jitendra Awhad brought up Suryawanshi’s interim postmortem report, which said he had died due to “shock following multiple injuries”.

“Would it be correct to say that these are old injuries? Nowhere in the autopsy report does it say that Somnath had old injuries on his body. On the very first page of the autopsy report, it says ‘shock following multiple injuries’...If he had breathing problems, have you checked the clinical reports? His family is denying it. His family is saying he did not have any kind of disease,” he wrote on X.