Mumbai: The Maharashtra Congress on Thursday alleged that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis-led government is attempting to ‘suppress’ the recent Parbhani judicial custody death of a Dalit man and the Beed Sarpanch murder case.
“With demands from various quarters for proper action in these cases, the BJP is not serious and unwilling to accept the truth, making it evident what the probe would reveal, so the outcome of the investigations is predictable,” said state Congress President Nana F. Patole.
Patole’s remarks came to mediapersons when he reached Belagavi (Karnataka) to take part in the two-day ‘Nav Satyagraha’ program as part of the AICC Special Session being held there.
He was referring to the death in judicial custody of a law student, Somnath Vyankat Suryawanshi, 35, on December 15, three days after he was arrested in the violent flare-ups following the desecration of a statue of B.R. Ambedkar in Parbhani, besides the kidnap, brutal torture and killing of Massajog village headman Santosh Pandit Deshmukh, 45, on December 9, when he attempted to foil an extortion racket.
Congress Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had called on the Suryawanshi family on December 23 and directly alleged that Fadnavis had lied in the Assembly and the Dalit man was ‘murdered’ by the police, sending ripples in political circles.
Earlier, on December 21, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar had also visited both the Deshmukh and Suryawanshi families and demanded a thorough investigation in their cases, besides similar sentiments of other Maha Vikas Aghadi party leaders plus the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi led by Prakash Ambedkar.
Patole pointed out that Suryawanshi’s death due to police assault was nothing less than a ‘murder’, while Deshmukh’s killing exposes the lawlessness in Beed which has acquired political overtones.
“Despite citizens and even ruling party members highlighting the facts in these cases, the MahaYuti coalition government is not ready to acknowledge them. Sadly, since the government is complicit, even a CID investigation will not yield any results,” contended Patole.
He expressed concerns over what he termed as an ‘authoritarian regime’ prevailing in the country that is raising eyebrows in all quarters, and against this backdrop, the AICC Special Session is critical for the Congress party and the people of the country.
(IANS)
