Pune police appoints dedicated ACP only for Elgaar Parishad case

NP NEWS NETWORK

Pune

Commissioner of Police Dr K Venkatesham on Saturday appointed a dedicated officer of the rank of Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) for the Elgaar Parishad case, which has become a very high profile case after the arrest several human rights activists, journalist, lawyers for suspected Maoist links.

ACP (Swargate division) Shivaji Pawar will now concentrate only Elgaar Parishad case. ACP Ravindra Rasal from the special branch has been posted in his place as ACP (Swargate division).

Officials said that it had become difficult for Pawar to manage several police stations under Swargate division as well as the Elgaar Parishad case registered with Vishrambaug police station.

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Elgaar Parishad was held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017 ahead of the 200th commemoration of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. The next day ie on January 1 when lakhs of people mostly from Dalit community had gathered at Koregaon Bhima, there was large-scale violence in which one Maratha youth was killed while properties worth crores were damaged.

Based on complaint from one Tushar Damgude, Vishrambaug police station had registered case against organisers of Elgaar Parishad who included Harshali Potdar, Sudhir Dhawale of Republican Panthers (RP), Mumbai and Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Deepak Dhengle of the Pune based Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) which is accused of being frontal organisation of banned CPI (Maoist).

There was another case against Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani and student leader Umar Khalid for allegedly giving provocative speeches during at the Elgaar Parishad.

According to police, the Parishad was organized as part of Maoist strategy to mobilize people against the elected government and spread violence.

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After a thorough investigation, police arrested Rona Wilson in Delhi, lawyer Surendra Gadling in Nagpur, Sudhir Dhawle in Mumbai, Professor Shoma Sen and former Prime Minister Rural Development (PMRD) fellow Mahesh Raut in Nagpur.

Police have also booked four underground Maoist operatives Milind Teltumbde, Prakash alias Ritupam Goswami, Manglu and Deepu for allegedly planning to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last week, police arrested P Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha in Delhi. However, they are under house arrest on the order of Supreme Court.

They have been booked for offenses under Indian Penal Code sections153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and IPC sections 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) and 117 (Abetting commission of offence by the public) and stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).