Will ask Chief Minister to form SIT to investigate Bhima Koregoan case

NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Picture/Twitter Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said that his party will ask Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the Bhima Koregaon case properly. "We will be asking the Maharashtra Chief Minister to form an SIT to investigate Elgaar Parishad's case properly," said Pawar.

In January last year, violence erupted at an event to mark the 100 years of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, leaving one dead and several injured including 10 policemen in Pune. The police had filed 58 cases against 162 people during a state-wide shutdown in January following clashes in Bhima-Koregaon.

Later that year, the police filed a charge sheet against ten people including five arrested activists -- Roma Wilson, Shoma Sen, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut and Surendra Gadling and five absconding accused -- Commander Dipak Milind Teltumbde, Kishanda Prashant Bose, Prakash Naveen Rituoam Goswami, Commanders Deepu and Manglu.

The police, in its charge sheet, alleged that Elgaar Parishad, which was organised at Pune's Shaniwar Wada on December 31, 2017, had aggravated the violence in Koregaon Bhima a day later.

The charge sheet further stated that a letter recovered from one of the arrested accused revealed that a conspiracy was being framed to plan a Rajiv Gandhi like assassination to take down Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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