CM Uddhav Thackeray: Haven’t Handed Over Bhima-Koregaon Case To The Centre

Amid growing clamour among the members of the ruling alliance, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray cleared the air over the probe into Bhima-Koregaon case.

Kolhapur| 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 Maha government had recently allowed 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.

"एल्गार आणि भीमा कोरेगाव हे दोन वेगळे विषय आहेत. माझ्या दलित बांधवांचा जो विषय आहे तो भीमा कोरेगाव बद्दल आहे आणि त्याचा तपास मी केंद्राकडे दिलेला नाही आणि देणार नाही आणि मी स्पष्टपणे सांगू इच्छितो की दलित बांधवांवर अन्याय होऊ देणार नाही."
-मुख्यमंत्री उद्धव बाळासाहेब ठाकरे

— Office of Uddhav Thackeray (@OfficeofUT) February 18, 2020

The development comes following NCP’s statement that Home Minister Anil Deshmukh will work out modalities for a parallel probe through an SIT into the Elgar Parishad case which is already being handled by the NIA.

Also Read: Bhima Koregaon: How the case developed in last one year

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday took on the Maharashtra government and the centre over their alleged joint decision to transfer the Koregaon-Bhima case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), terming it as an “unconstitutional” move that violates the state’s jurisdiction over law-and-order issues.

“The behaviour of some in the Maharashtra Police (involved in Bhima-Koregaon investigation) was objectionable. I wanted the role of these officers to be investigated. But ministers in the Maharashtra government met police officers one morning, and the centre ordered its transfer to the NIA at 3 pm the same day. This is wrong as per the constitution because criminal investigations come within the state’s jurisdiction,” news agency ANI quoted him as telling reporters.

“It was wrong of the centre to take the investigation out of the state’s hands, and it was wrong of the Maharashtra government to support the decision,” Mr Pawar added.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, which the police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

A man was killed and several others were injured in the violence that followed the 200th-anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle on January 1, 2018.