Violence during farmers' agitation was ''planned'': Chavan

Mumbai, Aug 13: Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that the violence witnessed during the farmers' protest in Maval taluka of Pune district on Tuesday was "pre-planned".

Talking to reporters at the end of the monsoon session, Chavan said there was a precedent,for,in a similar incident in Pune recently, certain elements had tried to ensure that a protest went out of control.

In a veiled reference to the shifting of statue of Dadoji Konddeo in Pune and Shiv Sena's bandh to protest against the shifting, Chavan said, "certain elements work overtime to ensure that a protest turns violent and situation goes out of hand. This was seen when a certain statue was shifted to a different place and how tapped phone conversation of few persons showed that they wanted to create a situation of riot. The case is now being tried in court."

Defending his deputy Ajit Pawar against the opposition charge that they suspected the local SP Sandeep Karnik had consulted Pawar before ordering firing, Chavan said that "people should refrain from levelling baseless charges,".

Pawar who was present at the press conference intervened to say that the judicial probe would reveal the truth.

"We all want to know who is behind the violence. I called up Karnik when the Leader of Opposition in the assembly Eknath Khadse said in the house that two persons were killed in the firing. Even though adequate bandobast was maintained for the demonstration, nobody imagined that the situation would go out of control," he said.

PTI