Even as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government granted yet another extension to the two-member commission set up to probe the causes behind the Bhima-Koregaon clashes, Ambedkarite outfits like the city-based Republican Yuva Morcha (RYM) have demanded that the State constitute a separate special investigation team (SIT) to probe afresh the riots that rocked Maharashtra on January 1, 2018.
Rahul Dambale, president of the morcha, said the very fact that the commission had recently complained to the MVA government of a severe fund crunch confirmed the worst suspicions of Ambedkarite outfits that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which had set it up, had no wish for the truth behind the riots to emerge.
The RYM has also demanded that Mr. Thackeray’s government immediately direct the Pune Rural Police to file a charge sheet in the case and set up a trial court to probe the role of Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide.
“While the inefficacy of the Bhima-Koregaon judicial commission has been proven time and again, we urge the State government to appoint a separate SIT to probe the clashes from scratch while mandating it to submit a report within a fixed period,” Mr. Dambale said while speaking to The Hindu .
On Saturday, the MVA granted the fifth extension to the commission, comprising retired Kolkata High Court chief justice J.N. Patel and former Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick, which was set up by the Devendra Fadnavis government to probe the incident. Violence broke out in Bhima-Koregaon and the adjoining villages on New Year’s Day in 2018, when lakhs gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1818 Bhima-Koregaon battle, leaving one person dead and heightening social tensions across the State.
Mr. Dambale said the commission, whose work was further hamstrung by its lack of resources, had yet to examine several witnesses.
“While the Uddhav Thackeray government is mooting the formation of a SIT to probe the Pune Police’s investigation into the Elgaar Parishad case, the probe into the main clashes at Bhima-Korgaon itself has been ignored. And it is obvious that the two-member commission has made no significant progress even after two years of the violence,” said Mr. Dambale, who claimed to have filed the first affidavit before the commission.
FIRs had been lodged on January 2, 2018 (a day after the clashes) against radical Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote, who heads the fringe outfit ‘Samasta Hindu Aghadi’, and Sambhaji Bhide ‘Guruji’, founder of the Sangli-based, right-wing ‘Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan’. While Mr. Ekbote is out on bail, Mr. Bhide has never been probed.
Mr. Dambale alleged that the judicial commission had been operating under pressure from the BJP government, which had shielded Mr. Bhide and Mr. Ekbote.
“The RYM had demanded soon after the riots that the government appoint a sitting judge and not a retired judge as part of the judicial panel. Had a sitting judge been appointed, he would automatically have been able to command facilities and the resources necessary to conduct the probe. Furthermore, the present commission can only give recommendations and has no powers to prosecute,” said Mr. Dambale. He also said the commission had done nothing significant despite 500-odd affidavits being submitted in the case, detailing atrocities on Dalits by Hindutva forces in Bhima-Koregaon.
He remarked that the deliberately ‘weak’ nature of the commission offered an insight into the disposition of the BJP, which was determined to protect the orchestrators of the clashes right from the start.
Taking issue with the investigation of the Pune rural police, Mr. Dambale pointed out that neither the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act nor the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) was ever applied in the FIRs against Mr. Ekbote and Mr. Bhide registered immediately after the clashes.
“In October 2001, Mr. Ekbote had come under the police scanner in connection with a rioting incident in Saswad and top district authorities had mooted action against him under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) of Slumlords, Bootleggers, Drug-offenders and Dangerous Persons Act, 1981. Yet, despite Mr. Ekbote being a repeat offender, even the MPDA was not applied to him by the Pune rural police in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon clashes,” Mr. Dambale said.
Likewise, besides hollow assurances from Pune Rural police authorities, not a single charge sheet had been filed by them in spite of 23 FIRs being lodged by members from Ambedkarite outfits and others in connection with the clashes.
“Only 104 persons among 1,400-odd people identified as the rioters have been arrested or investigated till date by the Pune rural police, which is less than 10% ,” Mr. Dambale said.
