Minister Jayant Patil said the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government favoured granting relief to those who were falsely implicated.
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.
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.
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.
The panel had earlier summoned Pawar in 2020, but he could not appear before it due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Later, another summons was issued to Pawar for appearing before the commission on February 23 and 24 this year, but the senior politician had sought a fresh date, saying he wanted to file an additional affidavit before recording his testimony.
Munde, whose party is a key ally in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, has made the demand in a letter written to Thackeray on Monday.
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.
Pawar filed an additional affidavit before the probe panel on April 11, a copy of which was made available on Thursday.
'We have been fighting to treat political prisoners differently.' 'Except for Hyderabad and Kolkata, the concept of keeping political prisoners separate doesn't exist in India.'
Dominic Xavier is puzzled by the NIA's campaign against Leftist activists and intellectuals and wonders if we will ever get to know the truth behind all these arrests.
"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.
'We urge you to take remedial measures to address this blatant injustice pending withdrawal of the case against them,' the MPs write.
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
'Whenever Dalits have agitated on the streets, the government has blamed Naxalites.'
Arjun Rampal, Sunny Leone and Digangana Suryavanshi launched the teaser of their forthcoming film, The Battle of Bhima Koregaon in Mumbai.
The party also demanded the formation of a commission of inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge on the clashes between Dalit groups and supporters of right-wing Hindu organisations during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in Pune that left a man dead on January 1.
None of them had anything to do with the violence at Bhima Koregaon, where they were not even present, points out Aakar Patel.
'Both sides were so embittered by what had happened last year that I didn't know what to expect.'
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.
The Dalit leader alleged that the 'false' FIR is the brainchild of the RSS and the BJP.
'Today we know of many X, Y, and Z persons as urban Naxals but can we call these people as such?' 'No, we cannot because we don't have a legal framework for doing that.'
'It is a reassertion of their lost martial stride, of a history that is papered over by turning it into a memory largely of the upper castes.'
'These charges of the prosecution will fall to the ground and I am 100 per cent sure of that.'
'We were sure our appeal would succeed. We knew we could break down the evidence and show it was hollow.'
'By transferring the case to the NIA without the Maharashtra government's consent clearly indicates they want to play mischief.'
The larger conspiracy of Communist Party of India-Maoists was to overthrow the democratic system in the country, and the accused were working in that direction, the chargesheet claimed.
Minal Gadling, in her petition, claimed that all the arrested five, including her husband, have been in a false and mala fide way implicated in the case even when there was no involvement on their part in any such activity.
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.
'Why did they attack us? What was our fault?' 'They killed a woman. They burnt down vehicles.' 'They pelted stones at us over a 45 km stretch. There was no police bandobast.'
If the Bhima Koregaon commission is terminated before completing its work, the people affected by the violence 'would feel cheated'.
The newspaper said efforts are being made to incite caste violence in the state by exploiting the clashes which took place at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1.
The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, on December 31 last year.
'The Elgar Parishad turned out to be the first rallying cry against the BJP and RSS in Maharashtra.' 'The speakers took a vow not to vote for the BJP.'
The apex court also rejected the plea to appoint a Special Investigation Team for probe.
The Union home ministry has received a factual report from the Maharashtra government on the prevailing situation in the state in the wake of caste-based violence there, a ministry spokesperson said.
'The circumstances indicate that the government is not serious about the commission...' '...We are not at the mercy of the government.'
'It is not happening in the same manner as it was happening during the time of the Peshwas.' 'Whatever happened during the Peshwas cannot happen now.'
The one thing holding back the plucky youngster who has never hesitated to plunge into unknown territory, is funds
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances