Mumbai: A fact finding team in its report found widespread police brutality and administrative lapses following the riots in Prabhani, Maharashtra in December last.
Violence had erupted in Prabhani December 11, 2024 following the desecration of the Indian Constitution replica installed in front of the statue of Dr BR Ambedkar a day before.
The Fact-Finding Team, led by Adv. Abhay Taksal (CPI), Adv. Pawan Jondhale, Sudhir Salve, Comrade Vikas Gaikwad, Comrade Pritam Ghagave, and Rahul Pradhan, visited Prabhani and conducted interviews with victims, eyewitnesses, and local authorities.
The team in its report documented the harrowing accounts of police combing operations in Dalit-majority areas like Bhim Nagar, Priyadarshini Nagar, and Sarang Nagar of the city.
Residents reported police breaking into homes, assaulting men and women, including minors and elderly individuals, and using caste-based slurs, the fact finding team, guided by Human Rights Activist Teesta Setalvad, Secretary Citizens for Justice & Peace or (CJP), and Journalist and Poet Raju Parulekar, said in its report.
“Women recounted instances of extreme violence, including injuries on their private parts, and detainees were allegedly tortured in custody with blows to their feet and palms to conceal visible injuries”, the fact finding report on Prabhani violence said.
“The brute violence and unchecked brutalities displayed by police during the beatings of women and the young in their homes during the combing operations and after that in custody have violated all laws and statutes including directions by the Supreme Court on police conduct towards those in custody”, the fact finding team said in its report titled "Unfettered Police Brutalities in PARBHANI".
Claiming administrative lapses, the fact finding team in its report said that prior to the desecration, an event was organised by a far-right Hindutva gorup near the area of incident during which incendiary speeches were made.
The report said that the administration allowed the Hindu Ekta Morcha - an outfit with with a history of inviting speakers who make incendiary speeches that violate the law and breach social peace, to proceed with its event without adequate preventive measures.
"No steps, such as videography of speeches or imposition of Section 144 of the CrPC (163 pf the BNSS), were taken to avoid unrest”, the fact finding team said.
The police also failed to investigate the role of Datta Sopan Pawar, who desecrated the Constitution replica and was swiftly declared “mentally deranged” without a formal psychiatric assessment", the fact finding team said.
Meanwhile, a long march has been organised from Maharashtra’s Parbhani district, seeking justice for Somnath Suryawanshi, who died in judicial custody days after violence erupted in Parbhani.
The march reached Watur village in Partur Taluka in the State’s Jalna District on Wednesday January 22, 2025, with hundreds of people joining them to reach Mumbai.
After Jalna, the rally will move towards Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) district. The long march, started on January 17, will end in Mumbai on February 18.
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