Historian gets threat as film reignites age-old conflict

The background of the case pertains to the centuries-old conflict between Marathas and Brahmins over the history of Sambhaji Maharaj and whether Ganoji Shirke or some Brahmins helped the Mughals arrest him.

CM Fadnavis orders inquiry into threat call

Historian gets threat as film reignites age-old conflict

MUMBAI/PUNE: A case has been registered on the orders of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis against a certain Prashant Koratkar at Juna Rajwada Police Station in Kolhapur for allegedly threatening historian Indrajit Sawant. The police said the suspect was booked for making statements that could incite communal tension.

The background of the case pertains to the centuries-old conflict between the Maratha and Brahmin communities over the history of Sambhaji Maharaj and whether Ganoji Shirke or some Brahmins helped the Mughals arrest him. The controversy was re-ignited by Chhaava, the box-office hit on the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji.

Chhaava depicts Ganoji and Kanhoji Shirke, brothers-in-law of Sambhaji Maharaj, as informing the Mughals about his whereabouts. Sawant contested the claim and said that according to the correspondence between officials of the French East India Company, it was some Brahmins who helped the Mughals.

“There was a trade office of French officials near Sangameshwar, and they used to relay information about happenings in the Maratha kingdom to their headquarters at Pondicherry,” said the historian in several interviews. “The diary of Francis Martin, a French officer, says that Brahmin clerks working in the Maratha kingdom helped the Mughals arrest Sambhaji Maharaj.”

On Tuesday, Sawant shared a six-minute recording of a threat call from a person who called himself Prashant Koratkar, a Brahmin journalist from Nagpur. “You are spreading lies against the Brahmin community by using a foreigner’s diary,” said the voice. “Don’t forget that you are living in a Brahmin regime under CM Devendra Fadnavis, and if the Brahmin community decides, you will face severe consequences. Don’t forget it was due to the sacrifice of people from the Brahmin community that Shivaji Maharaj succeeded in escaping from Panhala fort.”

Sawant, in his post accompanying the recording, said, ‘A man named Prashant Koratkar, who calls himself a Parashurami Brahmin, is making threats in the name of the Honorable Chief Minister. I have received such threats before, but I am sharing this recording to show how hatred and disrespect for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj persist among some people…’

Koratkar subsequently spoke to the media in Nagpur and claimed he had not called Sawant. “Someone has used my name to threaten Indrajit Sawant,” he said. “If Sawant had called me to confirm, he would have realised this. But without contacting me, he publicly blamed me and maligned my image. I will file a defamation suit against him.”

A case has been registered against Koratkar at Juna Rajwada Police Station under Sections 196, 197, 299, 302, 151(4), and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).