Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today visited Maharashtra's Parbhani today and met the family of a Dalit activist who died in custody. Activist-lawyer Somnath Suryawanshi died after he was arrested in connection with the violence over alleged vandalism of a replica of the Constitution. Mr Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, landed in Nanded airport and proceeded to Parbhani.
"I met the family and those who were assaulted. I was shown the postmortem report, photographs and videos. This is custodial death.
Police killed him. The Chief Minister lied in Assembly to send a message to cops. This youth was killed because he was a Dalit and was protecting the Constitution.
RSS' ideology is to finish the Constitution. We want this matter to be probed and those guilty to be be punished," he said after meeting the family. The alleged vandalism on December 10 sparked violence and around 300 people, most of them Dalits, were taken into custody.
Suryawanshi, 35, was among them. Three days later, he was found dead in judicial custody. The death has sparked a massive row, with the Opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi targeting the Devendra Fadnavis government.
Mr Fadnavis has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the activist's family. In his response to a question on his death, the Chief Minister has said when Suryavanshi was produced in court, the magistrate asked him if police had tortured him. He replied in the negative, the Chief Minister said.
The family, however, has demande.