A 35-year-old man arrested during the violence in one of the seven cases of rioting and arson in Maharashtra's Parbhani on December 11 over damaging the replica of the Constitution installed near the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, died under judicial custody on Sunday morning, December 15.
The deceased, identified as Somnath Vyankat Suryavanshi, was accused number 2 in the case registered by the New Mondha Police. He was staying in a rented home at Shankarnagar in the Mondha area of Parbhani. He used to work as a labourer in the Pune district of Maharashtra. Suryavanshi visited Parbhani to meet his family.
Suryavanshi belongs to the Wadar community. According to the police, he complained of chest pain early on Sunday morning, after which the jail authorities admitted him to a civil hospital. The doctors declared him dead. He was in police custody for tow days after his arrest and was later shifted to the district jail under judicial custody.
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Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar and his brother and Republican Sena founder Anandraj Ambedkar have raised the issue and threatened protests.
Prakash Ambedkar, in a post early on Monday, stated that he is visiting violence-hit Parbhani at 12 noon. "Reaching Parbhani by 12 PM."
“The custodial death of Somnath Suryawanshi — a Bhim Sainik belonging to the Wadar community — in Parbhani is gut wrenching, sickening and intolerable to say the least. What is more intolerable that his death happened in judicial custody despite his bail application being approved,” Prakash Ambedkar said earlier.
“Since his death happened in judicial custody, our lawyers will be urging the Court that the postmortem (CT scan, MRI, forensic and pathological) examination takes place in a government hospital which has a forensic department, and that the postmortem is filmed and undertaken by both the forensic and pathology department,” added Ambedkar.
“Many Ambedkarite people were arrested after the Parbhani accident. It is a shocking incident for Bhim Sainik. There should be immediate action against the concerned police personnel,” added Anandraj Ambedkar.
On the night of December 11, a total 50 individuals were arrested and 300 to 400 people were booked under various charges of rioting and other offices in the district. Suryavanshi was among the identified suspects. He was produced before the court on December 12 and was remanded in police custody until December 14 before being shifted to jail under judicial custody.