'An attempt to create hatred': Maharashtra CM Fadnavis hits out at Rahul Gandhi for visiting Parbhani

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday attacked Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for visiting violence-hit Parbhani. Fadnavis said this was a political meeting and that Gandhi had been doing it for years.

"Rahul Gandhi has come here only for political purposes. This was just a political meeting, an attempt to create hatred among people on caste lines. He has been doing this work for the last many years, so I think his work of spreading hatred, he has completed it today in Parbhani," the chief minister said while speaking to reporters. 
 
Fadnavis said the government of Maharashtra is sensitive, and it has announced a judicial inquiry into this entire matter. "All the truth will come out in the judicial inquiry. Nothing will be hidden, there is no reason for it and if it is revealed in that investigation that the death has happened due to assault or any other reason, then no one will be spared and the strictest action will be taken."

Earlier today, Gandhi met the family of Somnath Suryavanshi, who died in judicial custody following violence in Maharashtra's Parbhani.

Parbhani witnessed violence after a glass-enclosed replica of the Constitution near Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue outside the railway station in the city, located in Marathwada region, was vandalised on the evening of December 10.
    
Suryawanshi, a resident of Shankar Nagar in Parbhani, was among more than 50 persons arrested in connection with the violence. He died on December 15 at a state-run hospital where he was rushed after complaining of chest pain and uneasiness while he was in judicial custody and lodged at the Parbhani district central prison.

Fadnavis said in the state assembly recently that Suryavanshi had told a magistrate that he was not tortured and the CCTV footage also doesn't show any evidence of brutality.