Sixteen SITs; none fruitful

The Maharashtra government’s announcements of SITs look like a farce

Mumbai: The Mahayuti government in the state, since its inception three years ago, has formed at least a dozen of Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to investigate several serious issues. But, one realises that hardly any of the SITs have served the purpose of their formation unless and until ‘killing time’ is one of the undeclared tasks entrusted to them.

The state government announced formation of the SIT in murder case of the Massajog Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh in Beed district on January 2, almost a month after the incident took place. However, within a fortnight of formation of the SIT, the state government had to reconstitute it by removing nine cops from the Beed district and appointing six new cops from the state CID, to maintain impartiality of the probe agency. While this act exposes the callousness on the part of the state government in forming the SIT, the only credit to the agency so far is surrender of the prime accused in the case Valmik Karad.

In August 2024, the state government had formed three SITs. The first one was on August 20 to probe the sexual attack case in a school on Badlapur. The incident had happened on 12-13 August and the opposition had threatened with state-wide protests on August 24. On this backdrop, the SIT was announced on the day when the local protests escalated badly affecting the railway traffic on the route. Incidentally, the accused was arrested even before the SIT was formed and charge sheet was filed on September 22. However, the main accused Akshay Shinde was killed in a police encounter the next day, while the SIT report submitted to the court on December 17 recommended action against a senior police official for dereliction of duty, giving a general sense that the case is being hushed up by the authorities.

Another SIT formed in August 2024 was on August 27, to investigate the reasons that led to collapse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Statue at Malvan in Sindhudurg district on August 26. Though the accused were apprehended and case has been filed, the SIT was reconstituted on September 19 expanding its scope of investigation. However, nothing tangible seems to have come out of the probe.

Incidentally, on the same day in the neighbouring district of Ratnagiri, a 19-year-old nursing student was raped by an auto-rickshaw driver and an SIT was formed to probe the incident. It is being said that the SIT was formed just to manage the public opinion which was already fierce in those days due to the rape and murder of a woman doctor at the R G Kar institute of Kolkata.

Despite the numerous SITs announced, and the assignment of senior officers to oversee them, their outcomes remain elusive. This has provided the opposition with ample fodder to accuse the government of using SITs as a mere smokescreen, a tactic to temporarily appease critics and defuse tensions. Once public outrage subsides, neither the opposition nor the media seems inclined to follow up on the progress of these investigations.

SITs formed by the Mahayuti government over past three years

Date of SIT Announced by Task entrusted

11 Feb 2023 – CM - Ratnagiri Journalist Shahsikant Varpe Murder Case

16 May 2023 – DCM - Trayambakeshwar temple incident

19 June 2023 – CM - BMC Contracts worth Rs 12,000 crore

12 Dec 2023 – CM - Disha Salian Murder Case

15 Dec 2023 – DCM - Mahadev App Case

17 Dec 2023 – CM - Woman assaulted by IAS officer's son

03 Feb 2024 – DCM - Ulhasnagar BJP MLA shooting

27 Feb 2024 – Vidhan Sabha Speaker - Jarange Patil's Remarks

28 Feb 2024 – CM - Maratha Quota Stir Caning

21 May 2024 – DCM - Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case

20 Aug 2024 – DCM - Badlapur school sexual attack case

27 Aug 2024 – DCM - Ratnagiri Nursing Student Rape Case

27 Aug 2024 – CM - Sindhudurg Shivaji Statue Collapse

2 Jan 2025 – CM - Probe Massajog Sarpanch abduction and murder