Accuses State machinery and the police of inaction

Social activist and trade union leader Baba Adhav alleged here on Wednesday that upper-caste, right-wing elements were responsible for the >murder of three of a Dalit family in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.

Mr. Adhav alleged that the State and the police had failed to bring to book the murderers of Sanjay Jadhav, 42, and his wife, Jayashree, 38, and their son, Sunil, 19, even a fortnight after the gruesome incident.

“The police appear to be operating under political pressure. The kin of the victims are not satisfied with the progress of the investigation, but are prevented from saying so openly. This is the third such incident of violence against Dalits in Ahmednagar, a sign of the rift between classes,” he said while visiting the family at Javkhede Khalasa.

On the intervening night of October 20 and 21, the three were hacked to death in the village. The dismembered body parts were found floating in the family well. Sunil was decapitated and his body parts were strewn on the acre-and-a-half plot owned by his father.While the new Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra had announced a fast-track trial in the case, Dalit groups across the State continued staging protests against alleged police inaction.

In Pune city and several parts of Nashik district, thousands of activists from Dalit organisations and other social bodies took to the streets demanding justice.

Shops in urban areas of Pune and Nashik downed shutters in the morning as protests reached a peak, forcing heavy deployment of the police. The restive crowds were persuaded to calm down.