Elgaar Parishad probe: ‘Pune cops connected to case will be quizzed if they were under pressure from top’

“All former and current Pune police officials are under the scanner,” said Anil Deshmukh, adding the Home departmnt has started reviewing the cases filed by Pune police, following a meeting he held with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in January.

On the allegations of phone tapping of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP leaders, Deshmukh said the phones of some BJP leaders like Eknath Khadse had also been tapped during the previous Devendra Fadnavis regime and the matter will be probed.

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday said all top Pune police officials connected to the Elgaar Parishad case will be questioned. “We will question all top Pune police officials in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, to find the truth behind registering the case against activists…,” Deshmukh told The Indian Express when asked about the repeated criticism of Pune police by NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Deshmukh said the Maha Vikas Aghadi government will find out whether there was any pressure from the top to register the case against prominent activists and arrest them. “In fact, we have already spoken to a couple of Pune police officials who were involved with the case then to find out whether they were under pressure from the top…,” he said.

Asked what the officials said, Deshmukh said, “I will reveal it at an appropriate time.”

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Deshmukh said former Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla, during whose tenure the case was registered, current Police Commissioner K Venkatesham, the then Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Kadam and ACP Shivaji Pawar, who had filed two chargesheets in the case, will all be questioned.

“All former and current Pune police officials are under the scanner,” said Deshmukh, adding the Home departmnt has started reviewing the cases filed by Pune police, following a meeting he held with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in January.

In Mumbai on Tuesday, Sharad Pawar, while reiterating his demand for an immediate inquiry into the handling of the probe by Pune police officers, had said, “The way Pune police and certain senior officers conducted themselves… and their entire outlook towards the Elgaar Parishad case, is worrying and a blot on the prestige of Maharashtra police.”

Deshmukh also said the government was seeking expert opinion about setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case. “In next two three days, we expect to get an expert view, after which we will set up the SIT,” he said.

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According to Pune City Police, the Elgaar Parishad, an evening conclave held in Shaniwar Wada on December 31, 2017, contributed to the violence that broke out in Koregaon Bhima the next day, January 1, 2018. According to Pune police, the conclave was the result of long-term planning and funding by Naxal outfit CPI-Maoist. Of the 23 accused named in the case, nine were arrested in 2018 and have been lodged in Yerawada Jail since then. The arrested accused, most of them prominent human rights activists, have been charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Investigated by Pune City Police for over one-and-a-half years, the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency in January, days after Pawar and Deshmukh himself had raised questions about the investigation.

Meanwhile, an official said the state Home department has also directed the Pune police to reveal the source of a letter allegedly seized from arrested activist Rona Wilson. Pune police had submitted the letter before court as a crucial piece of evidence for arresting the activists.

Rashmi Shukla, who is now additional DGP and commissioner, State Intelligence Department, refused to respond to Pawar’s comments.

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Shukla has distanced herself from the case and told the state Home minister that she was on leave during the period the case was registered and investigated, said sources. “She told us that her husband was suffering from a serious ailment and was therefore on leave most of the time. The case was handled by Ravindra Kadam, who was the joint commissioner of Pune police,” said a source.

Kadam had told The Indian Express on Wednesday that Pune Police had enough documents and evidence to book the accused. Pune Police Commissioner K Venkatesham refused to comment on the case.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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