A lot of human rights activists were arrested by the earlier BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government in the case on charges of being linked to Maoists
Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party supremo and Former Chief Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday took on the Maharashtra government and the central government over their alleged joint decision to transfer the Koregaon-Bhima case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He termed it as an “unconstitutional” move that violates the state’s jurisdiction over law-and-order issues.
Pawar said “The behaviour of some in the Maharashtra Police indulged in Bhima-Koregaon probe was objectionable. I wanted the role of these officers to be probed. But ministers in the Maharashtra government met police officers one morning, and the central government ordered its transfer to the NIA at 3 pm the same day. According to the constitution, this is wrong because criminal investigations come within the state’s jurisdiction,”.
“It was wrong of the central government to take the inquiry out of the state’s hands, and it was wrong of the Maharashtra government backed the decision,” said Pawar.
The NCP is part of the alliance government headed by Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra.
The central government had transferred the case, which relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at a gathering the night before the violence near the Bhima-Koregaon war memorial happened over two years ago. This decision comes after the Maharashtra government hinted that it might take a reconsider into the events that took place at the gathering.
A lot of human rights activists were arrested by the earlier BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis government in the case on charges of being linked to Maoists.
Anil Deshmukh Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader said on Thursday that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had overruled him in the matter. Even Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sanjay Kumar on Thursday claimed that “the state home department has no objection to the case being entrusted to the NIA”.
A man was killed and many others were injured in the violence that followed the 200th-anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle on January 1, 2018.
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