Maharashtra

“We hope that Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote would be arrested soon, we announce to call the bandh off,” Ambedkar said, adding it was Fadnavis’s responsibility to ensure the two were arrested.

“If the government fails to act, it will have to bear the consequences,” he said.

On Monday an FIR was registered against Bhide of the Shiv Pratisthan and former BJP corporator and hardline Hindutva activist Milind Ekbote for instigating violence.

In Mumbai and some other cities schools and colleges remained shut while office-goers struggled to get to work as rail services were disrupted. Mumbai Metro service was also hit.

Thirteen buses of the civic transporter BEST were damaged by protesters, a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation official said. Fearing a similar fate, most autos and taxis, too, stayed off the roads.

Fadnavis said in the evening those involved in Bhima Koregaon violence would face stern action. “We have requested the Bombay high court to appoint a sitting judge to conduct the inquiry of violence. Nobody will be spared as the police are closely monitoring the CCTV footage of the violence.” He also hinted at outsiders fomenting trouble.

The bandh evoked a mix response in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad where shops and other commercial establishments remained open but some schools were shut.

Violence broke out at Koregaon Bhima, 40km from Pune, where hundreds of thousands of people, most of them Dalits, had gathered to mark the anniversary of an 1818 war between the British and Peshwa Bajirao II.

Many Dalit leaders believe the war was won by the British with the help of Dalit soldiers who defeated a large army of the Peshwa, who allegedly instituted oppressive caste practices.