Sparks have begun to fly after the Centre on Friday transferred the probe into the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), with state home minister Anil Deshmukh accusing the Union government of trying to “save some people”. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who had earlier requested chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray to set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the violence and arrests of activists with purported Maoist links, too, said the Centre handed over the case in haste as “they were afraid that the truth will come out”.
CM Thackeray did not react to the move till late on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Saturday, the NCP supremo said, “There is fear of being exposed…The haste shown by the Centre indicates that the doubts raised by me in the letter [to the CM] were true.” He said the Elgar Parishad in 2017 was organised by retired Supreme Court justice PB Sawant and all the speeches there were against injustice. “It does not mean they [speakers] are anti-nationals. There were allegations that they are Maoists but the then CM, Devendra Fadnavis, who made a statement on the incident in the Vidhan Sabha, never mentioned the term Maoist,” he said. The NCP chief also alleged that the statement recorded in Sawant’s name was false. “Those who were investigating the case also took into consideration a statement allegedly made by Sawant in media. He [Sawant] later said the statement recorded in his name was false. Thus, an inquiry was necessary. For this, I had written a letter to the CM...The state held a meeting in this regard, but the Centre transferred the case. It means the allegations of misuse of powers by the police has some basis.”
Deshmukh, too, slammed the Centre’s move and its timing. He said the government has sought legal opinion to challenge the Centre’s decision. “The Centre wants to save some people, and thus, the probe was transferred to NIA. The case was handed over to NIA without taking the state’s consent. There was no communication from the Centre [to the state] before transferring the case. This comes at a time when we were trying to find out the real reason behind the violence. We were ensuring that no innocent people should be convicted, but the Centre unilaterally transferred the case, which is against the Constitution,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Deshmukh, too, slammed the Centre’s move and its timing. He said the government has sought legal opinion to challenge the Centre’s decision. “The Centre wants to save some people, and thus, the probe was transferred to NIA. The case was handed over to NIA without taking the state’s consent. There was no communication from the Centre [to the state] before transferring the case. This comes at a time when we were trying to find out the real reason behind the violence. We were ensuring that no innocent people should be convicted, but the Centre unilaterally transferred the case, which is against the Constitution,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The NIA takeover occurred just as the state home department was in the process of appointing an SIT to probe the case. Deshmukh and deputy CM Ajit Pawar had held a meeting with home department officials on Thursday. The meeting was prompted by Pawar’s recent letter to the CM. He had said that the erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government “abused” its power to book activists.
Meanwhile, Congress also criticised the Centre’s move terming it as an encroachment upon the state’s powers. Congress’s state unit spokesperson, Sachin Sawant, said, “The sudden transfer of the case proves two things: The [erstwhile] BJP government was behind the violence near Bhima-Koregaon war memorial, and the claims of a conspiracy to eliminate the prime minister and the then CM was a big fraud.”
Dalit leader and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar said the NIA probe puts a question mark over the efficiency of both incumbent CM Thackeray and former CM Devendra Fadnavis. “If he [Thackeray] lets this go without a whimper, the Centre will walk all over his government. If it was an issue of national security and terrorism, why did Fadnavis not give the case to NIA earlier,” he said.
Meanwhile, state BJP leaders defended the Centre’s move. “We think NCP leaders are afraid of getting exposed. The NIA takeover was necessary as the state was looking to sideline the probe that had reached a crucial stage,” said BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar. Fadnavis, who has been accused of mishandling the probe by Pawar and Ambedkar, said the MVA government was playing “politics of votes”. “The NIA takeover is the right decision as the ‘urban naxal’ network has spread across India,” he said.
Violence had broken out near the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial in Pune on January 1, 2018, leaving one dead and several others injured. Dalits visit the memorial in large numbers every year to commemorate the victory of British forces, which included Dalit Mahar soldiers, over the army of the Brahmin Peshwa rulers in 1818. The Pune Police had filed cases against activists linked to Leftist and Dalit movements, who were part of Elgar Parishad. They were accused of inciting violence and being involved in a conspiracy to kill the Prime Minister.