NIA directed to investigate Bhima Koregaon violence
... the Centre chose to transfer it to NIA without taking our permission. The decision violates the Constitution ANIL DESHMUKH, state minister
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been directed to take over the probe into 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case from the Pune Police, officials said on Friday, inviting a sharp reaction from the Maharashtra government.
“A decision has been taken to transfer the investigations to the NIA,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity. The Union home ministry, to which the NIA reports, refused to comment.
For more than a century, Dalits have celebrated a victory in an 1818 war of the British army, manned by several Dalit soldiers, over the forces of the Peshwa, the erstwhile rulers of Pune who were known for oppressive caste practices. On January 1, 2018, peaceful protesters were attacked by an unidentified group of men who torched vehicles, ransacked shops and sparked violence that left one dead and at least 40 people injured.
The police have said that provocative speeches at Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017, led to the violence, and Maoists were behind the conclave. They later arrested several Left-leaning activists including Telugu poet Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj for alleged links to Maoists.
On Friday, Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh hit out at the central government, saying that it transferred the probe of the violence to the NIA without the state government’s consent.
“When the state government decided to go into the depth of the Bhima-koregaon violence case, the central government chose to transfer it to NIA without taking our permission. The decision violates the Constitution of the country and I condemn it,” Deshmukh told Hindustan Times.
The NCP and Congress criticised the Centre’s decision, calling it an encroachment on state’s powers. The three-party Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government began reviewing the case last week. On Thursday, Deshmukh held a meeting with senior home department and police officials to start reinvestigation into the case.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar recently wrote a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, demanding a probe by a special investigation team into the case. Pawar said that the erstwhile BJP led government “abused” its power to book activists in the case and called the arrests a conspiracy. Pawar alleged that the action against them appeared vengeful and wrong and needed to be probed by an SIT. He also alleged that a few senior officials from the Pune Police commissionerate had “misused their power” and needed to be investigated.