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.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale has voiced his opposition to the demand for demolition of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's grave in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, saying its removal will not serve any purpose. Athawale said that since Aurangzeb was buried there, his tomb should remain undisturbed. The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar administration has barred Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote from entering the district from March 16 to April 5 amid calls from some outfits to remove Aurangzeb's grave. Security has been heightened around the site and visitors are being checked thoroughly.
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.
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.
Either this affidavit was prepared a long time back, or, Ambedkar has not been following the Commission's hearings.
'This shows how casually these officials approached a dispute simmering for years which finally erupted into violence.'
Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote -- the right-wing Hindu activists from Maharashtra - are no strangers to controversy.
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.
A court in Pune on Thursday remanded religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj, arrested for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during an event in December 2021 in the city, in judicial custody.
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 Pune police registered a case against Hindu seer Kalicharan Maharaj, right-wing leader Milind Ekbote and four others for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during an event in Pune and hurting religious sentiments, officials said on Wednesday.
The foundation of the Bhima Koregaon case was blown to bits by a senior policeman, reports Jyoti Punwani.
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?
A court in the Chhattisgarh capital Raipur granted transit remand of controversial Hindu religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj, who was arrested by the state police for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Mahatma Gandhi at a conclave, to the Maharashtra police on Tuesday.
The term "urban Naxal" was used by the Pune Police probing the alleged links between the Elgar Parishad conclave of December 31, 2017 and the caste clashes around Koregaon Bhima in Pune district the next day.
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.
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.
'Isn't it tragic, comic as well as ironic that the people who owe their allegiance to the Constitution of India are declared deshdrohis without an iota of evidence?' 'But this mistake has to be corrected and those who actually and directly fomented the Bhima Koregaon riots and the masterminds behind these people will have to be exposed now.'
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.
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.
Apart from Sharad Pawar, the commission will also record the evidence of the then superintendent of police (Pune Rural) Suvez Haq, then additional SP, Sandip Pakhale and the then additional commissioner, Pune, Ravindra Sengaonkar, between February 21 and February 25.
'Whenever Dalits have agitated on the streets, the government has blamed Naxalites.'
A senior police official, however, said Monday the charges against the 85-year-old in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case have not been dropped.
The reasons for the snail's pace at which the commission is proceeding are linked both to the government's indifference to it as well as the indifference of the parties appearing before it.
Pawar recorded his testimony before the commission in Mumbai in connection with the January 2018 violence at the Koregaon Bhima war memorial in Pune district of Maharashtra.
Acting on a specific input, the Raipur police apprehended the seer from a rented room near Bageshwar Dham, located around 25 km from Khajuraho town in MP, Raipur Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal said.
=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.
Chhattisgarh Police arrested Hindu religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh on Thursday over his alleged derogatory remarks against Mahatma Gandhi, following which a court here sent him to police remand for two days, an official said.
'There is a contradiction between what the then CM said in the assembly and the legislative council, and the direction taken by the police investigation.'
Ekbote was arrested soon after the Supreme Court turned down his anticipatory bail plea earlier in the day, the official added.
'Those who attacked me, punish them.'
Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar, said Maharashtra Democratic Front, Maharashtra Left Front, besides 250 organisations, have supported Wednesday's shutdown.
'By transferring the case to the NIA without the Maharashtra government's consent clearly indicates they want to play mischief.'
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
Bhide gave various references from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and attacked the current political and social system.
The protesters blocked roads in several areas of Mumbai, forced shops to shut down.
Government rejects activists' request. Commission requests new witness to attend.
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.
Action should be taken against those arrested for alleged Naxal links if there was evidence, he said.
"Pawar said April 4 in the afternoon will be convenient for him as Parliament session would be over by then. Accordingly, the Commission has summoned him on April 4," Malik told reporters at the state secretariat in Mumbai.
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