Pune: The Inquiry Commission looking into the Koregaon Bhima violence case may summon Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis if required, said Justice (Retd) JN Patel, who is heading the commission on Tuesday.
The matter came up when Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh President Prakash Ambedkar demanded examination of Fadnavis during the hearing by the judicial commission set up to probe into the riots. He claimed Fadnavis was attending a programme at a spot 40 km from Koregaon Bhima, in Karjat taluka of Ahmednagar district at the time of the incident.
Ambedkar also claimed there is disparity in reports of Koregaon-Bhima incident submitted by the Pune rural police to Supreme Court and investigations carried out by the city police in that matter.
He said Koregaon-Bhima riots erupted over intelligence failure and requested Justice (Retd) JN Patel to examine directors of State Intelligence in the case. He claimed the gram sevak of Vadhu Budruk had informed in writing that the five grampanchayats of the surrounding areas had declared a bandh on account of the January 1 incident. He said this contradicted the information given by the police and so there is a need to cross-examine the then Police Inspector of Shikrapur Police Station. “I will submit the necessary documents before the commission,” he said.
He refuted allegations that the banned CPI (Maoist) had funded Elgar Parishad held at Shaniwarwada and said, “A retired Supreme Court Judge cannot accept funds from a banned organization. He is a very respected nationalist legal luminary. The allegations are false.”
