Mumbai: In a deveoplment in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, the Maharashtra government has extended the deadline of the Judicial Commission probing the matter till March 31, 2021. The deadline comes in wake of the fact that due to lockdown and Covid-19 the panel had suspended its hearings and have not examined any witness in the last nine months.
The two-member commission, comprising of Chief Justice (retd) JN Patel and former chief secretary Sumit Mullick, was constituted in February 2018 to conduct an enquiry into the riots that broke out in Pune on January 1, 2018, wherein one youth was killed. The commission was initially constituted for three months and was expected to submit a report of the incident along with recommendations for the state authorities to avoid such a situation in future.
However, the commission's deadline was being extended from time to time and, on February 8, 2019, the commission's last extended deadline would came to an end on December 31, 2020.
The Government Resolution (GR) issued by the state on Friday does note the fact that owing to the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the panel could not conduct its regular hearings during this period.
"Thus, in order to facilitate the panel to complete its proceedings and even examine all the witnesses and finally submit a report to the state, it has been decided to extend the deadline for the last time till March 31, 2021," the GR notified.
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