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This is an archive article published on April 5, 2018
Battle of Bhima Koregaon anniversary: Politically motivated steps, ‘mishandled events’ led to violence, suggests report by SC panel
Swaraj Vidwaan, a member of the 5th NCSC who acted as an observer while drafting the report, said their findings indicated that serious “mishandling” of events had led to violent clashes between Dalits and Marathas during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
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The commission had heard a number of cases in which the SC or ST victims, who approached police to file cases, were allegedly tortured or ill-treated. (Express photo/File)
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), which conducted an independent probe into the Koregaon Bhima violence, has submitted its report to President Ram Nath Kovind and the Centre. Swaraj Vidwaan, a member of the 5th NCSC who acted as an observer while drafting the report, said their findings indicated that serious “mishandling” of events had led to violent clashes between Dalits and Marathas during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
Vidwaan and other members of the NCSC, who were in Pune on Wednesday, didn’t divulge too many details about the report. “I will share details of the report at a later stage… it has been submitted to the President and the central government. What I can share, though, is that we found clear indications of politically motivated steps… people being forced to carry out certain anti-social activities. Many events were poorly handled and they snowballed later,” she said.
Vidwaan had visited Pune in August last year, soon after the 5th commission was constituted in July 2017, and lashed out at Pune Police over their alleged indifference towards hearing cases filed by members of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
The commission had heard a number of cases in which the SC or ST victims, who approached police to file cases, were allegedly tortured or ill-treated. The NCSC member had said in many cases, police would either deny to file an FIR, or delay it, once they learned that the victim belonged to a SC or ST community.
One case involved Pune’s former Joint Commissioner of Police Sunil Ramanand, who had filed a case with the commission alleging ill treatment while working with city police. The commission, which found that Ramanand had to face “humiliation” during his stint, had taken up the issue on priority.
Ramanand was later transferred as Special Inspector General, CID, Pune.
On the progress in the case, Anuradha Dusane, assistant director, NCSC Maharashtra, said, “The matter is being heard… a committee, comprising members from the SC community, has been constituted to further probe the case.”
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Ruing the mode of functioning of earlier commissions, Vidwaan said the current team had been handed over as many as 55,000 pending cases from across the country of atrocities against SCs and STs. She said, “Due to the apathy of the previous commissions, thousands of cases have been left pending. Since the last nine months, after the current team was assigned charge, a total of 5,500 cases have been heard, of which close to 3,000 cases have been already disposed of.”
Maharashtra reports at least 20 or more cases against SCs and STs every month. As per the state government’s records, close to 1,000 cases were reported between 2016 and 2017. “Most of the cases were related to issues at workplace… or land grabbing and discrimination at the hands of police,” said Dusane.
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