Bhima Koregaon case: Pune court reserves order

Mumbai, Feb 07: Pune sessions court has reserved the order on Bhima Koregaon case for 14 February on the matter related to transfer of the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The prosecution (State of Maharashtra) has opposed NIA's application seeking transfer of the case.

Violence had broken out between Dalits and Marathas in the village of Bhima Koregaon near Pune on January 1, 2018.

This happened a day after an event in Pune called the Elgar Parishad was organised to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon in 1818 between the East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy. One person died in violence during a bandh called by Dalit outfits the following day.

The investigating agency named 11 of the 23 accused in the FIR, including Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, P Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha.

Except for Teltumbde and Navlakha, the others were arrested by Pune Police in June and August 2018 in connection with the violence. They were accused of having links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and are still in prison.