Maharashtra police form SIT to probe Somnath Suryavanshi custodial death case in Parbhani

Mumbai, Aug 22 (PTI) The Maharashtra police have formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a Special Inspector General to investigate the custodial death of Somnath Suryavanshi, who was arrested following violence in Parbhani in December last year.

Suryavanshi, 35, died at a state-run hospital in Parbhani on December 15 last year while in judicial custody, days after he was arrested in connection with violence in the city over the desecration of a glass-encased replica of the Constitution. Police had said that Suryavanshi died after taking ill.

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court last week directed the state Director General of Police (DGP), to set up an SIT in the case within a week.

Accordingly, the Crime Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the case, has formed an SIT headed by Special IGP Sudhir Hiremath, an official said.

Hiremath, who recently returned to the Maharashtra cadre after serving in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), will head the probe, he said.

The probe team will also comprise Superintendent of Police Abhijeet Dharashivkar, Deputy Superintendent of Police Anil Gavhankar and other officials, the official said.

The process of handing over the probe documents in the custodial death case to the SIT was on, he said.

Suryavanshi was arrested along with 50 protesters in connection with the violence that erupted after the vandalism of the replica of the Constitution near Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue close to the Parbhani railway station on December 10 last year.

He died on December 15 inside a prison in Parbhani with the police attributing it to a heart attack.

A provisional post-mortem report had suggested that he died due to shock following multiple injuries.

The probe into the incident was handed over to the CID.

In January, the Maharashtra government set up a one-member inquiry committee headed by retired judge V L Achalia for judicial enquiry into the custodial death.

The committee was investigating the sequence of events, reasons and its impact in the incident of the custodial death.

Last month, the high court ordered the police to register an FIR in the custodial death. PTI DC NP