Will not permit Centre to take over probe into Bhima-Koregaon clashes, vows CM Thackeray

Pune: In an apparent U turn following his Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fuming at his move to hand over the investigation in the alleged role of Elgaar Parishad into the Bhima-Koregaon clashes, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray assured the Ambedkarite community that he will not allow the Centre to take over the probe into the case. He further argued that the Elgaar Parishad case and the Bhima Koregaon clashes of January 1, 2018 were two separate issues.

Speaking to newspersons on the second day of his Konkan tour, the Chief Minister said “the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre had taken the probe into the Elgaar Parishad case from the Maharashtra government and turned it over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), but the State government would never permit the probe into the Bhima-Koregaon clashes to be handed over to the Centre, said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

He further remarked “the Elgaar Parishad case and the Bhima-Koregaon clashes are two separate matters. The Ambedkarite community is concerned with the Bhima Koregaon riots…I have not turned over the investigations into the clashes over to the Centre and nor I am about to so in the future”.

Terming the alleged atrocities on the Dalit community during the Bhima-Koregaon riots as “unfortunate”, Thackeray assured that under no circumstances would he permit any further injustice against the Ambedkarite community.

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“I reiterate that the violence at Bhima-Koregaon in 2018 which concerns the Dalit community is distinct from the Elgaar Parishad investigations. The Centre has taken over the latter case from the State government and not the former. Let there be no misunderstanding over the matter,” the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister’s remarks come a day after his alliance partner, NCP chief Sharad Pawar-led had demanded the need for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by MVA government to independently probe the Elgaar Parishad case.

Pawar has been demanding the constitution of a SIT after publicly raising doubts over the investigation in the case by the Pune police. He had recently expressed displeasure after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to consent transferring the Elgaar Parishad case over to the NIA.

The Elgaar Parishad probe has caused fault-lines within the tripartite MVA government, with the NCP and the Congress demanding the setting up of a SIT while Thackeray and the Sena not too keen on probing the issue further.

Reacting to Thackeray’s statements, the Republican Yuva Morcha (RYM), a Pune-based Ambedkarite outfit, said that if the Chief Minister was truly concerned about no further injustice to the Dalit community, then it must immediately constitute a separate SIT to probe afresh the Bhima-Koregaon riots as well.

Also Read: Fadnavis govt misused police in Elgar Parishad case: Sharad Pawar

“Chief Minister Thackeray’s consent transfer of the Elgaar Parishad case over to the NIA, and thereby to the Centre, has hurt secular outfits as well as disappointing the Sena’s alliance partners, the NCP and the Congress. If he indeed is concerned about providing speedy justice for the Ambedkarite community regarding the Bhima-Koregaon clashes, then he must form a SIT to probe the riots anew and fast-track the case given that the Koregaon Bhima judicial commission (set up to probe the riots) has proved itself utterly ineffective,” said Rahul Dambale, president, RYM.

Dambale said that he has already written to the Chief Minister regarding the same earlier this year and urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to direct the Pune Rural police to file a charge sheet in the Bhima-Koregaon case and set up a trial court to probe the role of radical Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, alleged to be the chief orchestrators of the clashes. 

When asked about his party’s stance on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), Thackeray reiterated that they were different issues that there was no need to worry even if the CAA was implemented in Maharashtra.

“The CAA, the NRC is different, and the National Population Register (NPR) is different. Even If CAA implemented in Maharashtra, it will not cause any harm to anyone. There is no talk on the NRC being implemented as of now. If it (NRC) is implemented, it will not only affect the Muslim community but Hindus and the Adivasi sections as well. As far as NPR is concerned, this is as same as a census which held every 10 years and is not likely to affect anyone,” he said. 

Speaking on other issues, Thackeray further clarified the Sena’s stance on the Ratnagiri Refinery Petrochemical Limited (RRPCL) project known as the ‘Nanar refinery’ project remains unchanged.

The Chief Minister was responding to questions regarding a recent advertisement for the project in the Konkan edition of the Sena mouthpiece Saamna. The advertisement has raised eyebrows and triggered talk of the scrapped project was being revived despite Thackeray and his party’s vehement opposition to it in the past.

“I take all decisions regarding the Shiv Sena and the stance that is to be adopted by the party, is decided by me. No entity that gives any advertisement in the Saamna ever decides the Sena’s stance,” Thackeray said, adding that the Nanar issue was closed as far as he was concerned and that it was not even worth commenting on it.