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Nudged by Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray’s promise on Bhima Koregaon probe
Last week, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had publicly expressed his unhappiness over Thackeray’s decision to hand over the Elgar Parishad probe to the NIA.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that his government will investigate the Bhima-Koregaon violence case which was a result of the alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017. The Maharashtra government had recently okayed the handing over of investigation into the Elgar Parishad case to Centre’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“Elgar and Bhima Koregaon are two separate topics. The issue facing my Dalit brothers is about Bhima Koregaon and I will not give it to the Centre. I want to make it clear that there will be no injustice to Dalit brothers,” Thackeray said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Last week, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar had publicly expressed his unhappiness over Thackeray’s decision to hand over the Elgar Parishad probe to the NIA. The NCP is a key constituent of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, along with the Congress party.
Pawar’s remarks came a day after his party colleague and state home minister Anil Deshmukh said that the chief minister overruled his suggestion that the state government should oppose the Centre’s decision to take over the probe from Pune Police. Senior Congress leader and party’s Maharashtra in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge had expressed dissatisfaction over the decision and said that the government should have discussed it with alliance partners.
On Monday, the NCP had said that the state government will conduct its own probe by forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The Pune Police have claimed that the conclave was backed by Maoists.
During the investigation into the case, the police had arrested Left-leaning activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for alleged Maoist links.
