The administrative office of the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry has been shifted from Mumbai to Pune. The two-member commission-comprising retired high court justice J N Patel and former chief secretary Sumit Malik--was constituted by the state government on February 9, 2018, to inquire into the “exact sequence” of events that led to violence on the 200th anniversary of Battle of Koregaon Bhima on January 1 of the same year. One person was killed and several others were injured in the violence. Malik was the chief secretary of the state at the time of violence. Later, the government appointed him as the chief information commissioner of Maharashtra. The office of the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry was set up in the premises of the office of the chief information commissioner in Mumbai. V V Palnitkar, secretary of the commission said, as Malik retired recently, an application was sent to the state government seeking another place for the office. “The Government replied that a suitable place for setting up the commission's office was not available and asked the commission to find a new place on rent, which the government agreed to bear. Finding a suitable place in Mumbai is a tedious and a costly fair so we decided to shift our office to Pune. Accordingly, the office has now been shifted to the premises of Old Zilla Parishad in Pune on June 15,” said Palnitkar. The commission has been conducting its hearings in Mumbai and Pune, a few days every month. “Hearings of witnesses would continue in Pune as well as in Mumbai. Only the commission’s office is being shifted to Pune,” said Palnitkar. The extension granted to commission for the hearings will expire this month on June 30. “We have sought another extension of six months from the government to complete the commission’s work. Since we are yet to get an approval for it, the schedule for the next hearing has not been released yet,” said Palnitkar.
