The Pune police on Tuesday refuted reports that they denied the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team access to the Elgaar Parishad case documents, remarking that they would be given to the agency once procedures were completed.
Meanwhile, a political war of words erupted between the ruling and opposition parties over the matter, with senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former State Finance Minister leader Sudhir Mungantiwar warned that the newly-formed Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) could be dismissed by the BJP-led Central government if it deliberately created problems in giving information and documents to the NIA.
A three-member team from the NIA, led by an officer of the superintendent rank, met authorities from the Pune police involved in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case on Monday.
According to reports, the Pune police had informed the NIA team that the documents pertaining to the case were being presented as evidence in court, and that they would be handed over to the agency post an order from the Maharashtra director general of police.
“There is no conflict whatsoever, as is being projected by some sections of the media… the NIA team has communicated to us that they would be taking over the case. They also held a review meeting on Monday with authorities investigating the Elgaar Parishad case. However, there were certain procedures to be followed and permissions to be taken before handing over the case documents and these could take a week or even a couple of days,” a senior police official connected with the investigation told The Hindu.
Mr. Mungantiwar, on his part, said, “I can understand if there are some technical difficulties in handing over the information in the Elgaar Parishad case to the NIA. But if the State government deliberately creates obstacles and behaves outside the constitutional framework, then the Centre can dismiss this government.”
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Nawab Malik and Jitendra Awhad, as well as the Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat, criticised Mr. Mungantiwar for his remarks. “The entire Bhima-Koregaon violence [of January 1, 2018] was pre-planned. The then ruling party [the BJP] had orchestrated it in order to poison the social climate. Later investigations into the Elgaar Parishad case by the Pune police were phoney and intellectuals and activists were arrested on trumped-up charges… the issue of the alleged assassination threat to the Prime Minister was bogus,” said Mr. Malik, alleging that the real motive behind the Centre’s handing over the case to the NIA was that it feared that the State government’s Special Investigation Team investigation would expose the Pune police.
Challenging the Centre to dismiss the MVA government, Mr. Malik said dismissing an elected government was tantamount to the murder of democracy. “The public of Maharashtra will not forgive the BJP for that… We [the MVA government] will be conducting our parallel probe into the ‘false’ Elgaar Parishad case. The NIA should tell us what documents they want and we shall give them what they want to investigate,” he said.
While Mr. Thorat said Mr. Mungantiwar’s statement was “born out of frustration”, Mr. Awhad questioned why the Modi government was suddenly transferring the case to the NIA more than two years after the Bhima-Koregaon clashes.
“Earlier, the Centre had lauded the Pune police on what a wonderful job it was doing by probing the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case. Now, when the government has changed and the BJP is no longer in power in the State, the Centre is scared that the Pune Police’s false probe will be exposed,” Mr. Awhad said.
Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said he had yet to receive any official communication from the Centre. “I have come to know of this only through the media. I cannot comment on anything until an official letter reaches me, after which we will take legal opinion on how to proceed,” Mr. Deshmukh said.
