Parbhani Violence: Police Accused of Beating up Dalit Youth, Carrying Out Combing Operations

Mumbai: On December 10, a man vandalised the replica of the constitution placed in the heart of Parbhani city. The act of vandalism was unprovoked, and the culprit, Sopan Pawar, was apprehended right at the scene of the incident.

However, the incident sparked a call for a bandh in Parbhani district. On December 11, a total shutdown was called in the district, which soon escalated into full-blown violence. Angry Ambedkarites took to the streets, shouting slogans and demanding ‘instant justice.’

The agitation grew more violent as activists vandalised both public and private property.

Since then, the police have filed eight FIRs and arrested over 50 people – many of whom are women and young men from the neighbouring Dalit bastis like Bhim Nagar and Priyadarshini Nagar.

The root of the violence, Pawar, who desecrated the constitution’s replica, was declared to be “mentally deranged” within hours of his arrest. Locals claim they do not know Pawar, and that details of where he is from, whether he is a local or if he travelled to Parbhani are not known to them either. According to the police, Pawar, a man from the OBC Dhangar community, indulged in the act “without knowing the repercussions” of his actions.

Hours after Pawar’s arrest on December 10, special inspector general of Nanded, Shahaji Umap, who is overseeing the investigation, claimed that Pawar is a “lunatic”. There is no clarity about how the police reached this conclusion even before a proper scientific test could be conducted on him.

The Wire spoke to several local activists, including a few who were involved in the agitation on December 10.

“The incident happened around 3:30-4 pm. Pawar was alone; he didn’t have a mobile phone, and not a piece of paper was found on him. But the moment he was arrested, the police were able to find not just his name, but also some medical papers on the basis of which the police now claim he is mentally unstable,” said an Ambedkarite youth who was present at the site of desecration.

Just a few meters away from B.R. Ambedkar’s statue is one of Shivaji. On December 10, less than an hour before the desecration incident took place, the Hindu Sakal Samaj, an ultra-right-wing outfit, had organised a meeting near the Shivaji statue to condemn “atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh.”

At this event, as is the case at every such public gathering organised by the right-wing organisation, speakers delivered provocative speeches. Over the past year, several such public meetings have been organised across different districts of Maharashtra, each one more provocative than the last, some even escalating into violence.

Whether Pawar had participated in the Sakal Hindu Samaj public gathering is unknown, but the police are not probing this angle, alleges Rahul Pradhan, an anti-caste leader from the region.

Just as the desecration of an Ambedkar statue or anything associated with the anti-caste leader is not uncommon in the country, retaliation against such casteist acts is not unusual. On December 11, when violence first broke out at the collector’s office, just a few meters from the site of the desecration, several Ambedkarite youths including women activists had gathered outside the collector’s office. When the district collector refused to meet the activists, they allegedly turned violent. Several videos of the violent attack on the collector’s office and a few incidents of violence on the street have since been circulating on social media.

So are the videos of police atrocities and indiscriminate combing operations across Dalit settlements in town. The police are accused of entering the houses of Dalits, particularly Ambedkarites, in Bhim Nagar and Priyadarshini Nagar, and indiscriminately beating up men and women in the bastis.

Several videos, accessed by The Wire, show youths being brutally beaten by the police. This, even after the police claim to have already arrested over 50 miscreants in the case, and many are in police custody for further investigation.

In one video, a policeman, the part of the police platoon deployed at Priyadarshini Nagar can be seen damaging vehicle parked inside the basti.

The Wire tried to contact special inspector general Umap several times, both by phone and message, but was not able to get through. The story will be updated if and when Umap responds.

Pradhan, meanwhile, asks several pertinent questions. One is about the police’s failure to take “preventive measures” and instead resorting to combative action after the violence broke out.

“One doesn’t need to be mentally unstable for this kind of aggression and violence against Ambedkar’s memorabilia or Ambedkarites in the state. There have been several incidents when Ambedkar’s statues were desecrated in the state, leading to violence,” Pradhan points out.

“And each time, the violence is met with an equally loud response from the community. So why did the police not do anything to prevent the outbreak of violence on December 11?” he asks.

A leader of the Lal Sena, Ganpat Bhise, has also pointed to the police’s highhandedness and the violence that is underway across the district. Bhise and other members of Lal Sena have submitted a memorandum to the collector seeking a proper investigation into the incident and demanding that the state authorities not unfairly arrest Dalit youth in the case.

Prakash Ambedkar, leader of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and grandson of B.R. Ambedkar, has also demanded that police do not harass and wrongly detain Dalit youth in the case.

“I spoke to a group of Phule-Shahu-Amedkarwadi lawyers from Parbhani over a phone call. I gave them a legal action plan in the numerous instances of [Dalit] youth and women being beaten up and arrested by the police, and the combining operations in Dalit neighbourhoods,” Ambedkar wrote on X.