Mumbai: The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government and Mondha Police Station in Parbhani to register an FIR in the alleged custodial death of 35-year-old Somnath Vyankat Suryawanshi, who died on December 15, 2024, while in judicial custody at a state-run hospital.
A bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Sanjay Deshmukh passed the interim order while hearing a petition filed by Somnath’s mother, Vijayabai Suryawanshi, who has alleged that her son was illegally detained and brutally assaulted following communal unrest in Parbhani on December 10.
Somnath, a final-year law student, was among over 50 people detained in alleged illegal police raids after protests turned violent. Lawyers Prakash Ambedkar, Sandesh More, and Hitendra Gandhi, appearing for the mother, argued that Somnath was seen in viral videos holding the Constitution of India and recording the protests peacefully. He was arrested on December 12 and remanded to police custody, during which he was allegedly tortured. He died three days later.
The HC noted that the present case is not of a “police encounter in strict sense”, but that Somnath was in police custody, prior to death, when he was allegedly subjected to brutality.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lalita Kumari, the court said: “When a cognizable offence is disclosed on the basis of a complaint application, then the police are duty bound to register the FIR and take up the investigation.”
The court observed that the State had failed to register an FIR despite clear evidence, including a postmortem report which cited “shock due to multiple injuries” as the probable cause of death. A magisterial inquiry under Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, also held the police responsible.
“Deceased Somnath was in judicial custody.. When there was prima facie material on record.. a cognizable office was made out and, therefore, State ought to have registered the FIR,” the court underlined.
The court has ordered the FIR to be registered within a week based on the Vijayabai Suryawanshi’s complaint dated December 18, 2024, and directed that the investigation be handed over to a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
The bench also noted serious lapses, including the CID’s decision to bypass the seven-member team of doctors who conducted the autopsy and instead seek a second opinion from JJ Hospital, in Mumbai.
“We may not express our opinion… yet the question required to be gone into is, as to why he had not approached the seven members team from Aurangabad, who conducted the autopsy, for the opinion in respect of queries.” The HC has scheduled the matter for further hearing on July 30.
