ACP, who probed Elgar Parishad case, awarded by Union home ministry
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Shivaji Pawar, who probed the Elgar Parishad case, has been awarded with the Union home minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation for the year 2020. Pawar is among the 121 police personnel across India to receive this award, which was originally constituted in 2018.
“I am happy that all my efforts have been rewarded. The award is being given to me for the Elgar Parishad investigation,” said Pawar. Ten other police personnel from Maharashtra have also received the award.
Pawar was the investigating officer in the Elgar case when it was with the Pune police. He led the team that carried out nationwide searches and arrested 10 activists, including Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao and Gautam Navlakha in the case. The Pune police in their chargesheet argued that the conclave was backed by Maoists and the speeches made their triggered violence the next day at Bhima Koregaon in Pune district.
The case was later shifted to the National Investigating Agency by the Union government just when the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra was contemplating to constitute a Special Investigation Team to investigate Pune police action against activists in the Elgar case after NCP chief Sharad Pawar questioned the investigators’ role.
According to the Press Information Bureau release, this medal was constituted with the objective to “promote high professional standards of investigation of crime and to recognise such excellence in investigation by investigating officers.”
Besides 10 police personnel from Maharashtra, 15 are from the CBI, 10 from Madhya Pradesh, eight are from the Uttar Pradesh Police, seven each are from Kerala and West Bengal Police, and the remaining are from other states/UTs. The list of awardees also includes, 21 women police officers.
