Statement by Campaign Against State Repression: Facts: In the early morning of December 15, Ambedkarite Activist Somnath had chest pain and died in police custody. He had been arrested after a protest against desecration of a replica of Constitution in Parbhani District of Maharashtra. Medical examination found that there were internal and external injuries on his body, suggesting custodial torture.
Before the protests a replica of the Constitution was desecrated in Parbhani district in Maharashtra on December 10, International Human Rights Day. After the desecration, a call of bandh was given by some organisations in Parbhani to condemn Maharashtra police's act of shielding the perpetrators by declaring them as “mentally deranged”. After the protest on December 11, the police registered 8 FIRs against 50 Known and Unknown people and started combing operations in nearby Dalit Bastis, Bhim Nagar and Priyadarshini Nagar, brutally beating men and women. Those arrested by the police were sent to judicial custody without medical examination,..
The CASR says that ..Similar events unfolded in 2018, Elgaar Parishad program at Bhima Koregaon memorial where Brahmanical Hindutva forces attacked the masses gathered to oppose the "New Peshwai" in the form of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism of RSS-BJP. Instead of arresting the attackers, police raided the poor Dalit Bastis and unleashed brutality to suppress the anti-fascist vision of the oppressed and exploited people. Repression continued in the form of an attack on democratic progressive forces under the pretext of "Urban Naxalism", later known as Bhima Koregaon 16,
Somnath belongs to the Waddar community that is listed as denotified tribes by the government. These communities are treated by the Indian state as habitual offenders and Police simply pick them up and send them behind bars, whenever any kind of criminal offense happens in the areas near their bastis.
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