Maharashtra government seeks legal opinion on forming SIT for Elgar case

PUNE: State home minister Anil Deshmukh on Saturday said the government had sought legal opinion from the advocate-general if a Special Investigation Team could still be formed to look into the Pune police action in the Elgar Parishad case despite its further probe being transferred to the National Investigation Agency.
He said, “We have sent a note to the advocate-general, asking him to give legal opinion on whether the state government form an SIT (Special Investigation Team) after the central government had transferred the Elgar case to the NIA. If the advocate-general’s opinion is ‘yes’, then the government will constitute an SIT.”
Deshmukh’s statement came in the wake of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s consent to a probe by the NIA despite alliance partner NCP’s opposition. NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday had expressed his disapproval of Thackeray’s consent to hand over the investigation into the case to the NIA.
Deshmukh made the statement in the presence of city police commissioner K Venkatesham and other senior officers while interacting with reporters during his maiden visit to the Pune police commissionerate.
“NCP chief Sharad Pawar had given a letter to constitute an SIT headed by a retired judge to inquire into the Pune police action because he had received several complaints and the nine activists arrested in the case were respectable citizens. We had reviewed the investigation conducted by the Pune police on January 23. On the next day, the central government issued a notification transferring the Elgar case to the NIA. We had opposed the decision of handing over the case to the NIA because the state government was not consulted before taking such an important decision,” he said.
Deshmukh said, “We had also opposed the transfer of the case to the NIA before the special UAPA court in Pune. The chief minister later overruled the decision taken by me. The NIA has now taken over the case from the state police and we now expect them to conduct a fair and proper investigation.”
On the 36 rioting cases related to Koregaon Bhima clashes registered with the Pune rural police, he said some of the cases were still being probed by the police and the chargesheets would be filed on completion of investigations.
It is the police’s case that the Maoists supported and funded the Elgar Parishad in Pune on December 31, 2017 as a part of a larger conspiracy to create social unrest and overthrow the government. Alleged provocative speeches and inflammatory statements at the Parishad contributed to the caste clashes at Koregaon Bhima near Pune on January 1, 2018.