Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday sought an independent probe against top Pune police officers who investigated and supervised the Elgar Parishad and Koregaon Bima cases.

Pawar alleged that the officers cooked up cases and connected the two incidents. He questioned whether they had also informed the Centre about the MVA government's decision to set up an SIT to reopen the Koregaon Bhima case.

The decision to reopen the cases was taken at a review meeting held by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, and attended by the senior police officers, last month. The next day, the Union government handed over the Elgar Parishad case to the NIA.

"Did the officers who were present at the meeting inform the Centre?" he asked at a press conference on Tuesday. The NCP boss said he respected the state police and has worked as home minister for many years. "In the Elgar and Koregaon cases, the approach of the Pune police and their superiors is a major concern. The Maharashtra police are not known for this. The review meeting was on. Is Delhi so aware that in four hours it learnt about the details of the review meeting? The government should take note of this," he said.

He said the Koregaon Bhima and Elgar Parishad incidents were not connected. "Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote instigated the people before riots happened at Koregaon Bhima. In the Elgar Parishad incident, the police filed cases against the people who did not even attended the event." Pawar stressed that he will not instruct the MVA government what to do, but would continue to do whatever is needed to expose the misuse of power by the previous government.

'Won't give Koregaon case to Centre'

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said his government will not in any situation transfer the Koregaon Bhima investigation to the National Investigation Agency.  "Elgar and Koregaon Bhima are two separate matters. Koregaon riots have affected the Dalits. I have not given the case to the Centre and will never do so because we want to ensure justice for my Dalit brothers. There should be no misunderstanding," he told the media in Sindhudurg.

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