Bhima-Koregaon violence: Sharad Pawar asks CM Fadnavis to find out who is the outsider culprit behind the violence

Mumbai: Targetting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the Bhima-Koregaon riot, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has asked him to find out the outsider culprit behind it. Fadnavis had claimed left-wing extremists from outside were responsible for the communal tension.

Pawar, while speaking at Akluj in Solapur district on Sunday said, “People from Bhima-Koregaon too said there were people from the outside and not local people who poured fuel in communal tension, which resulted in the riot.”  Pawar said he had spoken to locals who alleged that “some outsiders who belonged to right-wing organisations provoked the violence.” “If local people also agreed about it, the state government has to find out the people who were the actual culprits,” he added.

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Meanwhile, the state government has yet to take action against Manohar Bhide, chief of Shiv Pratishthan and Milind Ekbote, chief of Samasta Hindu Aghadi, as the First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged against them under Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act and Indian Penal Code in Pimpri-Chinchwad police station making them responsible for the riot. The state home department is gathering information from the beginning of Elgar Parishad that was held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31 and trying to link the speeches of leaders and whether those instigated the people.

As Bhide had said he was not at present at Bhima-Koregaon and was not responsible for the caste riots. The state is also investigating the direct or indirect role of Bhide and Ekbote in the riots. “Before jumping to any conclusion and taking action against the culprits, especially Bhide, we want to gather confirm evidence and information in hand,” confirmed an official from the home department.