Santosh Mane

HRD and active member of Ambedkarite movement

Maharashtra

HRDA and National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ) have jointly issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on July 15, 2021, regarding externment of Dalit HRD Mr. Santosh Mane from Sangli. 

Mr. Mane is a member of the Ambedkarite movement in Maharashtra and is also associated with NDJM and Muktivadi Yuva Sanghatna. He has intervened in more than 150 cases of caste atrocities. 

A Panchanama was filed against the HRD accusing him to be involved in sand mining by the Talathi Rampur on December 2019. However, it was rejected by the concerned Tahasildar and the Panchanama was withdrawn on September 2020. After the incident, Mr. Mane filed a written complaint against the Talathi and others under the sections of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (POA), claiming that the Panchanama which registered against him with an objective to harass him. But FIR was not registered by the local police station. 

A case was registered against the HRD accusing him of illegal sand mining on April 28, 2020, by the Chinchani Vangi police station. An externment process was initiated against the HRD on January 11, 2021, and he was issued a show-cause notice on January 29, 2021. Responding to the show cause notice Mr. Mane provided evidence against the cases claiming it to be malafide in nature. However, he was issued an externment order banishing him from Sangli for two years on March 21, 2021. No inquiry has yet been initiated against the appeal he submitted on March 26, 2021. 

The externment has been ordered on the flimsy ground without considering evidence produced by the HRD. Also, the case was initiated only after Mr. Mane filed a complaint under the POA Act against the Talathi. The externment was served under section 56 of Bombay Police Act 1951 which pertains to the removal of the person who is about to commit an offense and was put in place for hardened criminals with prior convictions. The HRD doesn’t meet the criteria. It is a reprisal for his interventions in cases of caste atrocities.