Govt’s failure to probe Dhule violence, Dalit murders upsets locals

The state government’s lackadaisical attitude in dealing with two sensitive incidents that took place in January – the Dhule violence and the Dalit killings in Ahmednagar – has upset Dalits and Muslims.

Nearly 40 days after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced a judicial probe, to be led by a retired high court judge, into the Dhule incident, the panel is yet to be appointed.

Six policemen were arrested and two constables suspended for vandalising property, even as a police report admitted that police action, which claimed six lives, was excessive.

“We demanded that a judicial inquiry report be submitted within a month, but even the panel has not been finalised. There have been 11 recent arrests, all Muslim locals. People from Dhule are wondering whether the delay was to ensure the arrest of these locals before the probe started,” said Munaf Hakim, president, state minority commission.

In the case of the Dalit massacre of three youngsters in Sonai village in Ahmednagar, relatives are now threatening self-immolation unless the police probe moves forward. “Seven people were arrested a month after the incident, but many others are free. The CID probe is yet to begin. The police officer who prepared the misleading reports and the two government doctors who submitted fabricated post-mortem reports are yet to be arrested,” said Pankaj Thanvar, brother of Sandeep, one of the three youths killed in a suspected case of honour killing.

Fearing for his life, Thanvar has moved to Malegaon, He and the entire Thanvar family have threatened to self-immolate unless the case is fast-tracked.

Kalabhai Ghuru, mother of one of the other victims, has shifted to Jalgaon and wants the case to be heard outside of Ahmednagar.