Premium

Targeted by Rahul Gandhi over Parbhani custodial death, Fadnavis says Congress leader’s sole aim is to divide people

After meeting Somnath Suryavanshi’s family in Parbhani, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says the man was ‘murdered by police personnel’.

FadnavisFadnavis said his government is sensitive to the issue and has ordered a judicial investigation into the matter. (Screengrab/PTI)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday visited the family of Somanth Suryavanshi, who died while in police custody in Maharashtra’s Parbhani city, and accused Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of trying to shield police personnel involved in the case, drawing a strong response from the BJP leader.

“Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Parbhani was politically motivated. His sole objective is to spread division among people and different castes. He has been consistently doing this for years. I think he has completed his job of spreading hatred in Parbhani,” Fadnavis told reporters in Pune.

After meeting Suryavanshi’s family in Parbhani, Gandhi said, “Suryavanshi’s death is cent per cent custodial death. He has been murdered by police personnel. The chief minister has lied in the State Assembly to send a ‘message’ to the police. The youth was killed because he was a Dalit and was trying to protect the Constitution.”

Gandhi added that his visit was about securing justice for Suryavanshi’s family.

Suryavanshi was among over 50 people arrested in connection with the violence that erupted after a glass-enclosed replica of the Constitution near B R Ambedkar’s statue outside the Parbhani railway station was vandalised on December 10.

Fadnavis said his government is sensitive to the issue and has ordered a judicial investigation into the matter. “In the judicial probe, all facts and truths will come out. There is no reason for us to hide anything. If anyone is found guilty, we will take strict action against them,” he said.

The chief minister also said that NCP leader Sharad Pawar had contacted him regarding two incidents in Parbhani and Beed. “I have told him that I am looking into both the incidents,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

Fadnavis further said the central government has sanctioned nearly 20 lakh houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) for the state.

“For this year, the Centre had sanctioned six lakh houses for Maharashtra. This target has now been increased to 13 lakh more houses. This is the biggest gift given by the Modi government to Maharashtra. In the country’s history, no other state has received sanction for such a large number of houses in one year under the PMAY. With the sanction of 20 lakh houses, Maharashtra will see a reduction in the number of homeless people,” he said.

Fadnavis also said the central government has relaxed the norms for the PMAY. “Those who missed out on earlier surveys, like farmers and labourers, will be included in the new survey,” he added.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Latest Comment
Post Comment
Read Comments
Advertisement
Loading Taboola...
Advertisement