Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry gets extension till Feb 28

Violence was reported in Koregaon Bhima area in Pune district on January 1, 2018, when thousands of Ambedkarite Dalits gathered at the ‘Jaystambh’ at Perne Phata in Pune district to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon Bhima. One person died and several others were left injured in the violence.

On February 9, 2018, the state government constituted a two-member commission, headed by retired high court Justice J N Patel, for probing the cause of the violence. Former chief secretary Sumit Mallick was appointed as the second member of the commission.

Initially, the commission was given four months to submit its report, but its tenure had to be repeatedly extended to allow it to complete its work. The commission could not function during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The last extension expired on September 30. V V Palnitkar, the Commission’s secretary, said, “Further extension was sought from the government as examination of some important witnesses is pending. The extension has been granted till February 28, 2024. Examination of about 46 witnesses has concluded, while four witnesses have been partly heard.”

The Commission would be conducting its next hearings between October 16 and October 28 in Pune. Palnitkar confirmed that the commission has summoned IPS officers Rashmi Shukla, Parambir Singh and Suvez Haque, along with police officer Mahesh Chavan, senior politician and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar, the then deputy collector Jyoti Kadam and Elgaar Parishad activist Harshali Potdar to appear for the hearings.

Likely to be Maharashtra’s new director general of police (DGP), Shukla was the commissioner of Pune City police at the time of Koregaon Bhima violence. She deposed before the commission as a witness on February 4 last year. Her cross-examination had not concluded hence, the commission has asked her to appear again.

In her affidavit submitted before the panel, Shukla has attached various letters from the Maharashtra state intelligence department (SID) regarding the Elgaar Parishad held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, a day before the violence.

As per a Pune City police investigation, the Elgaar Parishad was organised on the instructions and strategy of the banned CPI-Maoist and that speeches delivered at the conclave and previous campaigns for the event were among the factors that caused the Koregaon Bhima violence. The then additional DGP (law and order), Parambir Singh, was a part of the press conference in Mumbai on August 31, 2018, regarding the arrests of activists in Elgaar Parishad case. Suvez Haque was the superintendent of Pune rural police during the Koregaon Bhima violence, which took place in his jurisdiction. “Mahesh Chavan was attached to the cyber cell of Pune rural police at that time,” said the commission’s lawyer Aashish Satpute.

Haque, Ambedkar and Potdar are under cross-examination before the commission. Ambedkar and Potdar have blamed Hindutva activists Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide for Koregaon Bhima violence.