Bhima-Koregaon 2018 statewide updates
Round Table India is documenting the ongoing large-scale combing operations and arrests of young men from dalit communities in an atmosphere of near complete mainstream media blackout.
Updates from Aurangabad
Criminal cases have been lodged against 7500 over the issue of stone pelting and rioting. 3000 have been booked under section 307. In CIDCO Police station alone cases against 6000 persons have been booked, says the following newspaper report.
Source: Sanjwarta Bureau, Aurangabad, 4th Jan 2018
All across Maharashtra the authorities and mainstream media have neither confirmed the number of arrests, the number held nor rebutted the figures emerging in social media and local newspapers, few of them reporting as high as 20,000 persons being taken in.
In Aurangabad, Round Table India’s writers attest to the police action and extensive combing operations and arrests, some have been released while there is little known about the others.
When a group of women was going to Kranti Chowk to protest against Bhima Koregaon violence they were stopped and were asked to return. Then one old lady was seen confronting the police asking them ‘what did they do in Bhima Koregaon?’ All the women were reluctant to leave and that’s when Police fired in the air. This was reported in the mainstream quoting the police version “Senior police officers said it was disturbing that women were spotted participating and pelting stones” whereas unarmed men and women who had gathered to protest were surrounded by armed police, lathi charged and taken into custody.
Aurangabad Police Commissioner, Yashasvi Yadav (of Muzzafarnagar riots fame), said that if “I had been in office during the combing operation in Aurangabad, I would have fractured 50 people at least. I would have shown them what police means.“
Harsul central jail capacity is 800, activists believe a large number of arrested people were crammed here and rest were sent to nearby taluka jails. The open air jail in nearby Paithan has a capacity of 700 plus. Leaving the question wide open to imagine the state in which the protestors and the systematically targeted youth from dalit communities have been kept during the last week. This scale of civil rights violations of so many people is going bear heavily on dalit movements for a long time to come.
The Ambedkarites took to the streets in Siddharthnagar to express their anger on the Bhima Koregaon incident. The police opened tear gas shells and then resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the mob. Ambedkarites in Ekta Nagar took to the streets to protest the Police lathi charge.
Source: 3rd January 2018- Lokmat news bureau
Amit Bhuigal, District president of Bhartiya Republican Party in a press conference said- “Police has launched combing operation in Dalit localities, they are raiding our houses at odd hours and arresting men/women. If police continue the combing operation, I shall immolate myself against Police’s Dabangshahi”
Source: Lokmat (Hello Aurangabad- 7 January 2018)
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जयश्री सुदाम इंगळे (वय 35) यांनी मनोहर उर्फ संभाजी भिडे व मिलिंद एकबोटे सह 20-25 आरोपींविरुद्ध छावणी पोलीस स्टेशन, औरंगाबाद येथे तक्रार नोंदवली. त्यांनी तक्रार केल्यावर त्यांच्या घराची नासधूस करण्यात आली
Jayashree Sudam Ingle (35) registered the complaint in Chaavni police station, Aurangabad, against a total of 20-25 other people including Manohar urf Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote. Her property has since been vandalized.
“Complaints registered against Milind Ekbote, and Sambhaji urf Manohar Bhide in Aurangabad Chavni police station”
Source: Newspaper : 5th January, 2018. Divya Marathi
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Harsul Central Jail, Aurangabad
44 boys locked up in Harsul Central Jail, Aurangabad. Relatives of the arrested young men anxiously wait outside the court.
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Kurla and Kalyan
Friends and lawyers reporting from Kurla and Kalyan which have seen a large number of arrests say that the courts have not released the young men. Kalyan Lawyers Association is fighting the cases pro bono.
Social media news has been circulating updates that in some police stations the men are only locked up while in other places like Beed they are being beaten up.
Today’s combing operation saw women being jailed. Some of them have babies as small as a year old.
कुर्ला कोर्टातील ६५ मुलांना आजही जामीन झालेला नाही. आता सोमवारी सीएसटीला सेशन कोर्टात अपील असेल.
कल्याणलाही सर्व मुलांना जामीन झालेला नाहीय. इतर ठिकाणची माहिती घेतलेली नाहीय अजून.
या नीचोत्तम गृहखात्याला कॉम्बिग ऑपरेशन बंद करायचं आवाहन करा सर्वांनी.
कुणालाही उचलत आहेत काहीही चार्जेस लावत आहेत. एक एक वर्षांचं बाळ असणाऱ्या भगिनींना उचलून आत ठेवलेले आहे.
सरकारने ताबडतोब हे सर्व ठिकाणी सुरू असलेले कॉम्बिग ऑपरेशन थांबवावे आता.
ज्याला आणि ज्यांना पकडायचे आहे त्यांचे उदात्तीकरण करून सरकार लोकशाहीचा खून करते आहे.
हे सर्व बूमरँग होणारे. सरकारवरच.
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