By Azib Ahmed
Parbhani, Maharashtra: As caste-based violence tore through parts of central Maharashtra’s Parbhani district on 11 December 2024, Ritesh Phonse, a 21-year-old class-12 student at Dnyanopasak College was among the nearly 50 young men from Dalit communities detained by police later that day from Parbhani city, 525 km east of Mumbai.
Policemen of the New Mondha Police Station beat him, as they did to all the other detainees, he alleged. “They used their batons,” he said about the beating. “They hurled casteist slurs at me, they insulted Ambedkar, our religion, the Constitution, and our parents.”
Phonse was among 50 people, almost all from Dalit communities, named in a first information report (FIR) filed by the Parbhani police at the New Mondha police station, one of at least eight FIRs filed in connection with the violence that broke out on 11 December after a glass-encased cement replica of the Constitution of India placed at the base of a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar was vandalised outside Parbhani railway station on 10 December.
It emerged that the sculpture was damaged when a young man with a history of mental illness threw stones at it, but by then Dalit groups had already planned what was to be a peaceful protest rally on 11 December.
The protest march through Parbhani city turned violent just before noon on 11 December, with protestors vandalising property and setting fire to tyres and shop signages.
According to Dalit leaders in Parbhani, the violence was perpetrated by a group of agitators who were outsiders looking to incite conflict.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.