ACP Shivaji Pawar has been asked to file his affidavit by August 15.
Ambedkar told Rediff.com that he intended making an application that private witnesses not be cross-examined by the Bhima Koregaon Commission of Inquiry.
=The video also confirms what initial investigations by the media into the Bhima Koregaon violence had found -- that it was a fallout of a Dalit-Maratha dispute in Vudu Budruk village.
At this point commission member Sumit Mullick asked the government counsel: 'Your job is to protect the State. How are these questions on Peshwas relevant?'
Government rejects activists' request. Commission requests new witness to attend.
The police were aware of the bandh since the gram panchayats had informed them about it. Yet, they did nothing to prevent it.
Tanaji Sable's story confirmed what the first witness had told the commission: That the Dalits who had gone to Bhima-Koregaon were stoned; that there were motorcyclists bearing saffron flags roaming around inspiring fear; that the police did nothing to protect the Dalits.
He is neither a victim of the violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018 nor an eye-witness to it. Yet, Bhimrao Bansod testified for a full 14 days before the judicial commission of inquiry set up to inquire into the violence.
'Those who attacked me, punish them.'
'We told the victims this was the only opportunity for them to get their story recorded.' 'If they did not recount their version the other side would concoct their own theory about what happened at Bhima-Koregaon.'
With all the evasions, one assertion made by the Pune (Rural) police stood out: They had found no connection of the Elgar Parishad with the violent incidents of January 1, 2018. Yet, the case against the 'Bhima Koregaon 16', which is based on exactly this alleged connection, continues, and seven of the accused continue to be behind bars under the UAPA, explains Jyoti Punwani.
This is just another instance of the indifference with which the Commission has been treated by the government.
Shivaji Pawar made a startling revelation: Though the subject matter of his investigation was the January 1 violence, he had not examined any of the witnesses to that violence.
Either this affidavit was prepared a long time back, or, Ambedkar has not been following the Commission's hearings.
For four days, the officer avoided giving any straight answers, becoming the first witness in the 48 witnesses that have appeared so far, to have achieved this feat.
The foundation of the Bhima Koregaon case was blown to bits by a senior policeman, reports Jyoti Punwani.
'This shows how casually these officials approached a dispute simmering for years which finally erupted into violence.'
There exists a curious link between Advocate Niteen Pradhan's client Milind Ekbote and Harshali Potdar: Both have blamed each other for the Bhima Koregaon violence, notes Jyoti Punwani.
Rashmi Shukla's testimony comes as a revelation because the proceedings of the Elgar Parishad form the basis of the Bhima Koregaon case which has become an international cause celebre.
This senior cop who deposed in such detail about the Elgar Parishad, however, claimed to know nothing about the opposition to it from organisations such as Milind Ekbote's Samastha Hindu Aghadi as well as Pune's then Mayor Mukta Tilak.
The former BJP corporator was named by a villager in a police complaint made three days before the January 1, 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon. Yet, the police did not include his name in the FIR.
Despite Sharad Pawar's categorical stand, the Maharashtra government has done nothing to ease the suffering of the Bhima Koregaon 16, who have been denied their basic rights to health and to communication with their families while in jail.
'Not giving the Commission space in Mumbai is an insult to Maharashtra's Dalits who are waiting for the inquiry report.'
No report of the violence was sent by Mumbai's police commissioner to the government. Why was the violence then considered serious enough to be included in the Terms of Reference? Was it a balancing act to counter the accusations that were then being made against Hindutva leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote?
'Both sides were so embittered by what had happened last year that I didn't know what to expect.'
Testimony presented before the Bhima Korgaon Commission over the last two months reveals the background to the violence that broke out on January 1, 2018.
'We want the Commission to finish its work; the issue it is investigating is too crucial for its work to be left incomplete.'
Curiously, on one aspect -- the large turnout of Dalits at Bhima-Koregaon -- both the counsel for the government and police, and the counsel for Milind Ekbote, an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon violence, pursued the same line of questioning. They asked Tukaram Gavare about the planning that must have gone behind this turnout.
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