MUMBAI, Dec. 27 -- The mother of Somnath Suryawanshi, a Dalit law student whose death in judicial custody in Parbhani in December 2024 triggered widespread outrage, has moved the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, alleging that the Maharashtra government has failed to comply with its earlier order regarding custodial death cases. In an application filed on December 9, Vijayabai Suryawanshi said the state government has not taken effective steps to address systemic and policy failures in handling custodial deaths, despite a high court order dated September 12 directing immediate action regarding policy failures in such cases. Following the high court's order, the Maharashtra home department had issued fresh guidelines for investigating custodial deaths, which prohibited investigating officers from closing custodial death cases without considering the conclusions drawn by executive magistrates. The state government's guidelines, issued on September 30, highlighted that officers from the state's Crime Investigation Department, who usually probe custodial deaths, shall not close cases without taking into consideration the conclusions drawn by executive magistrates in their reports. However, Vijayabai Suryawanshi's application said that the state government has not framed any binding statutory rules or comprehensive policy, but has only issued departmental circulars directing investigating officers (IOs) to obtain the magisterial inquiry report before filing a closure report. The application stated that the government's circular does not prescribe what must mandatorily follow when the magistrate's inquiry records a finding of "unnatural" or "custodial death". It does not mandate the registration of an FIR, an independent investigation, the suspension of delinquent officers, or taking time-bound steps towards prosecution, the application added....