E-Paper
Koregaon-Bhima Inquiry Commission gets 3-month extension
The Maharashtra state government has granted another three-month extension to the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry and ordered to submit its report by March 31 this year
The Maharashtra state government has granted another three-month extension to the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry and ordered to submit its report by March 31 this year. The last extension granted to the commission was December 31, 2022. The commission has so far heard 48 witnesses and seven of them have been partly heard till date.
The two-member commission was instituted by the government on February 9, 2018 under the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to probe into the nature and sequence of events which led to clashes between the right-wing members and Dalits on January 1, 2018 on the occasion of the bicentennial celebrations of the battle of Koregaon Bhima.
The commission was initially given four months to complete its work, and it was subsequently granted extensions. The commission had suspended its work during the Covid pandemic.
According to the fresh schedule, the commission hearing would take place in Mumbai where senior IPS officers Vishwas Nangre Patil, Mohammad Suvez Haque, Ravindra Sengaonkar, Shivaji Pawar and activist Harshali Potdar would be deposing before the commission,
The Koregaon Bhima inquiry commission is headed by retired chief justice of Calcutta High Court Jay Narayan Patel and includes former Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick as members. The commission has stipulated six terms of reference, including identifying causes of the January 1, 2018 riots that took place in Pune, identify responsible groups, determine whether police and administration were prepared enough, and recommend short and long-term measures. The commission works out of the public information office at Madam Cama Road, Mumbai and the Zilla Parishad building in Bundgarden, Pune.
