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‘Uddhav may have power, but...’: Congress on NIA probing Bhima Koregaon case
A day earlier, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar too had criticized the move. Pawar had said it was not right on the part of the Centre to hand over the probe into the case, which was with the Pune police, to the NIA as law and order was a state subject.
The Congress on Saturday disagreed with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to let the National Investigation Agency (NIA) take over the probe into the Bhima Koregaon case from the state police.
“This isn’t fair. We’re partners and such things should be discussed. You (Uddhav Thackeray) may have power but one should use it judiciously. Our ministers are there, they’ll fight,” Congress’ Maharashtra in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge said.
A day earlier, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar too had criticized the move. Pawar had said it was not right on the part of the Centre to hand over the probe into the case, which was with the Pune police, to the NIA as law and order was a state subject.
“It was not right for the Centre to hand over the investigation into the case to the NIA. But it was even more wrong for the state government to support the transfer of the case,” Pawar had said.
Along with the Congress party, the NCP is a key constituent of the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and its leader Anil Deshmukh is the Maharashtra home minister.
On Thursday, Deshmukh said Thackeray had overruled him on the probe in the case, in which human rights activists have been arrested for alleged links with Maoists. “We were putting up our stand in the court in this direction. The Chief Minister has the right to overrule my stand,” Deshmukh had said.
The case deals with the alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which according to the police had triggered violence near the Bhima Koregaon war memorial in the district on the following day.
The Pune police have claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.
During the investigation into the case, the Pune 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.
