Seated on a cot in the courtyard of a relative’s house in Annabhau Sathe Nagar area of Parbhani district, Vijayabai Suryawanshi remembers her son as “an avid book lover”. “His only assets were his books, running into hundreds. He aspired to be even 1% of what Babasaheb (B R Ambedkar) was,” Vijayabai says. On December 15, Somnath Suryawanshi, who was studying to become a lawyer like Ambedkar, died in custody, two days before his law exam. The interim postmortem report attributed the immediate cause of death as “shock following multiple injuries”. Somnath’s death triggered protests in Parbhani town as it followed allegations of widespread police brutality in rounding up people from its Dalit areas over a violent agitation on December 10. The agitation had been sparked off by the “desecration” of a copy of the Constitution kept next to an Ambedkar statue in the area. The Opposition has sought to corner the newly elected Mahayuti government over the issue, particularly as it coincides with the war of words between the two sides in Parliament and outside over the Constitution and Ambedkar. On Friday, replying to a discussion on the Parbhani incident in the Maharashtra Assembly, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Somnath was suffering from breathlessness and other diseases, and had not complained of any police torture when produced before a magistrate. At the same time, the government has set up an SIT to probe the incident, suspended a police sub-inspector and sent on leave another. However, for Somnath’s family, this is hardly justice for his “murder at the hands of police”. It was a big deal for his nomadic Wadar family, listed as a Scheduled Caste, that Somnath, 35, was so invested in education. Their lifestyle, involving constantly moving to find work, means very few of them pursue higher studies. The death of Somnath’s father in 2018 further strained the family’s resources. “But Somnath believed in learning as a way to improve his life and help others,” says his brother Premnath. “He would say, ‘Jithe sthan, tithe kaam, ani tithe shikshan (Wherever you go, find work and education)’.” Somnath himself lived by this dictum, enrolling for different courses even as he earned a living and moved from city to city, such as Aurangabad, Latur, Parbhani, and Pune. Once he became a lawyer, Premnath says, Somnath hoped to offer free legal help to the needy. According to the family, Somnath was doing the same, offering “legal advice”, following the protest in Parbhani town over the “desecration” of the Constitution. The protests in the area, roughly 500 km from Mumbai, were peaceful to begin with, but had descended into violence. What fuelled tempers was police identifying a resident of Mirzapur village, about 20 km from Parbhani city, as the man behind the “desecration”, saying he was “mentally unstable and suicidal”, and did not act out of any ill intentions. The Dalit protesters took this as an attempt to cover up a caste incident, with several claiming the Mirzapur man had been seen at a rally held earlier that day in the area by the right-wing Sakal Hindu Samaj over “atrocities” against Hindus in Bangladesh. After the Dalit protests on December 10 turned violent, between December 11 and 12, around 50 people were rounded up in police action, including Somnath. Locals claim police came at night to Dalit neighborhoods, and that even women “were not spared”. Somnath was picked up from Shankar Nagar, a largely Dalit settlement, and remanded in police custody for two days. On December 15, the family was told he had died of a “heart attack”. The last they had talked to Somnath was on December 9, after which the family could not get through to him. Unaware of the unrest in Parbhani, they didn’t think much of it. The Suryawanshis were enroute to Parbhani town, after hearing of Somnath’s death, when they were told the body had been sent to Aurangabad for postmortem. It was when they reached Aurangabad and saw a crowd of protesters gathered for the autopsy that the first doubts rose in their mind. Fearing that the anger over Somnath’s death may trigger more violence, police told the family they could not take the body back to Parbhani. “Police asked me if I would take the responsibility if the situation worsened. I asked them whether they took responsibility for my son’s death,” Vijayabai says. Finally, after intervention by Dalit activists, police gave in. Premnath says his brother deserves justice. “He was totally innocent and was murdered by police.” In the Assembly Friday, CM Fadnavis said that the man behind the “desecration” of the Constitution had been under treatment for his mental condition since 2012, and had expressed regret for his actions. “A committee of four doctors gave a report that he was suffering from a mental and psychotic disorder and needs to take regular treatment from a psychiatrist,” he said. Suggesting a conspiracy to make “communities fight against each other”, the CM said: “The insult of the Constitution had nothing to do with castes and communities. We politicians should work to ease the tension.” Announcing Rs 5 lakh for the family of a Dalit activist who died of a heart attack while protesting over Somnath’s death, he said that the December 10 protest was largely peaceful, but for some 200-odd people. About allegations of police excesses, Fadnavis said: “No combing operation was held… I talked to the local police.” The sub-inspector who faced suspension had faced action for “using extra force”, he said. Calls and messages to IG (Nanded) Shahaji Umap and Additional SP Yashwant Kale went unanswered. Local police officers denied allegations of atrocities. Countering the same, Jyoti Kankute says her minor daughters, 14 and 16, “who had nothing to do with the violence”, were taken from their tin-canopy home. “When I went to the police station, I was beaten and abused,” Jyoti alleges. The in-laws of Pooja Jadhav, who was visiting from Pune, say she too was detained, and that they were beaten up when they tried to intervene. “Police beat me with bamboo sticks. My husband, a kidney patient, was dragged out,” alleges Vimal Jadhav. From Priyadarshini Nagar, Vatsalabai Manwate, 50, a nurse who was trying to record police action, says she was led away by the authorities. Nikita Wature claims police officers kept beating her “until I told them I had just delivered a baby”.
