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Aanchal Mamidwar stood before the pyre in Nanded, the flames reflecting the life she could never live with Saksham Tate. Saksham, another name in the growing list of victims of caste-honour cruelty, yet she vowed to live with his parents and demanded capital punishment for her father and brothers. This heartbreaking incident comes on the heels of two other killings in Maharashtra. In September, Kundan Naresh Chavria, a young Dalit man from Lasalgaon in Nashik, was beaten to death, reportedly for loving a dominant-caste girl. Days later, another Dalit youth met the same fate, assaulted in broad daylight and left to die on the road. In each case, the pattern was chillingly familiar—the assertion of caste dominance disguised as the protection of family honour. For years, caste-honour killings were associated with regions like Tamil Nadu, Haryana or Uttar Pradesh and now in Maharashtra, they are here and growing. |
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Kundan Naresh Chavria: Dalit Teen Killed Over Alleged Affair
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On September 17, 2025, 18-year-old Kundan Naresh Chavria – a member of the Valmiki Dalit community – was brutally beaten to death in a suspected honor killing over an inter-caste relationship. According to FIR, Kundan was allegedly in a relationship with a young woman whose parents vehemently opposed the match. The woman’s father, Santosh Pandit Jadhav, and mother, Manisha Jadhav, along with two relatives Rushikesh Ramnath Jadhav and Akash Ramnath Jadhav, allegedly lured Kundan away under the guise of offering him some work. Once they had isolated him, the family assaulted Kundan mercilessly, inflicting grave injuries that proved fatal. Railway police registered a murder case against the four accused family members, yet proper sections from Prevention of Atrocities Act were not invoked. Kundan’s death sparked outrage among Dalit rights activist Ajay Changre, who pointed that few years back at Sonnai, Sandeep Thanwar was brutally chopped and buried in borewell. There have been calls for a swift investigation and for the strongest possible legal action against the perpetrators under anti-atrocity laws. |
Yash Dhaka: Journalist’s Son Stabbed to Death in Public
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Less than two weeks after Kundan’s murder, Beed district was rocked by another violent death. On the evening of September 25, 2025, 22-year-old Yash Devendra Dhaka – an engineering student and the son of local journalist Devendra Singh Dhaka – was brutally stabbed to death in a crowded public area of Beed city. A case of murder was registered based on a complaint by Yash’s father, and sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the FIR. Preliminary inquiries suggested that Yash and accused Suraj Kate had a history of personal enmity – they had clashed about a month prior, possibly over a dispute involving a woman friend. The fact that it happened in broad daylight amid bystanders raised serious concerns about law and order in Maharashtra and Beed in particularly, as gruesome murder of Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh a year back. |
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NCRB 2023: Caste Crimes Rising in Maharashtra
According to the NCRB 2023 report, Maharashtra recorded over 7,000 cases of crimes against Scheduled Castes, placing it among India’s worst-performing states. While not all are honour-related, these crimes expose an uncomfortable truth- despite mobility, urbanisation, and rising education levels, caste can be lethal for simply having a relationship across caste lines.
Nature of killings in above incidents has raised urgent questions about caste prejudice and lawlessness. The Prevention of Atrocities (PoA), Rule 16(2) requires a State High-Power Vigilance & Monitoring Committee meeting twice a year (January & July), chaired by the Chief Minister, Only one state-level meeting in the past 8 years. Neither the MahaYuti nor the Mahavikas Aghadi conveyed the meeting. The Chief Minister’s absence in reviews undermines policy coordination and sends a poor signal on political commitment to the law’s implementation. In District Vigilance Committee meetings, District Collector -led reviews have been irregular and insufficient; this lapse has meant little corrective action on slow investigations or low conviction rates.
Adv. Priyadarshi Telang
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