New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday clarified that the investigation related to the Bhima Koregaon case has not yet been handed over to the Centre and assured that it will not be transferred to the Centre.
Thackeray’s response comes amid his ongoing spat with BJP in the backdrop of resentment within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over the Chief Minister’s decision to not oppose the Centre’s move to hand over the Elgar Parishad probe to NIA.
Even Pawar and Congress’s Maharashtra in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge have criticised Thackeray over the decision to allow the central agency to probe the Elgar case.
“Elgaar Parishad case and Bhima Koregaon case are two different cases. Bhima Koregaon case is related to my Dalit people and the probe related to the case has not been given to Centre and I won’t do it. I will not let injustice happen to Dalits. Centre has taken over Elgaar Parishad case,” said CM Thackeray in a press conference in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray: Elgaar Parishad case&Bhima Koregaon case are 2 different cases. Bhima Koregaon case is related to my Dalit ppl & the probe related to the case yet not given to Centre&it will not be handed over to Centre. Centre has taken over Elgaar Parishad case pic.twitter.com/AFv6xNSFKt
— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2020
A Sessions Court on Friday passed an order in Bhima Koregaon case, transferring all records and further proceedings of the case to Special NIA court, Mumbai.
All the accused in the case will be produced before the special court of NIA in Mumbai on February 28. The NIA had filed a petition in Pune’s Sessions Court on January 29 seeking transfer of the case to the agency’s court in Mumbai.
The Maharashtra government had also filed an application before the court, had objected to transferring all the court records, seized articles from the file of this court to an NIA court in Mumbai.
On January 1, 2018, violence had erupted during the 200th-anniversary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle. One person lost his life while several others were injured in the incident. Police had filed 58 cases against 162 people. (ANI)
