Bhima-Koregaon case: Maharashtra to conduct parallel probe

Nationalist Congress Party national spokesperson and Minister for Minority Affairs Nawab Malik informed that Maha government will conduct a parallel investigation into the Elgar Parishad - Koregaon-Bhima case. He said this four days after the Pune Sessions Court assigned the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Mumbai: In a significant development, the Maharashtra government will conduct a parallel investigation into the Elgar Parishad - Koregaon-Bhima case.

Nationalist Congress Party national spokesperson and Minister for Minority Affairs Nawab Malik said that the state government will set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the sensitive case soon.

Activist arrested in Elgar Parishad - Koregaon-Bhima case.

"A decision on this will be taken soon by state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh," he added, four days after the Pune Sessions Court assigned the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The move came a day after NCP President Sharad Pawar pointed the needle of suspicion by stating that Centre had handed over the case to the NIA as the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state "wants to hide something".

"There appears to be something that the former (Devendra) Fadnavis government wants to suppress. That's why the probe has been handed over to the NIA. The Fadnavis government was in power when the Koregaon-Bhima violence broke out," Pawar told mediapersons in Jalgaon on Sunday.

Earlier, on at least two occasions, Pawar had taken a swipe at Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray saying it was "improper" to hand over the case to NIA, but the Sena has not yet reacted.

However, he said that the chief minister was within rights to use his discretionary powers and it was the Centre's prerogative to investigate the matter, "but the Maha Vikas Aghadi government should have been taken into confidence".''

Elgar Parishad - Koregaon-Bhima case

The following is the chronology of events leading to the Maha Government will conduct a parallel investigation in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence case after Centre transferred the case to NIA.

Chronology of events in Elgar Parishad - Koregaon-Bhima case

The Elgar Parishad - Koregaon-Bhima case has been a bone of contention between the Centre and Maharashtra and created huge friction between the ruling allies Shiv Sena, and NCP-Congress since the past three weeks.

(IANS REPORT)