NCP chief Sharad Pawar faults Uddav Thackeray over transfer of Bhima-Koregaon case

Kolhapur, Feb 14: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday in his first criticism of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray after the alliance government formed in Maharashtra in November last year, said that the CM has made a wrong decission by letting the NIA take over the probe into the Elgar Parishad case.

According to the news agency ANI, the NCP chief said that the behaviour of some in the Maharashtra Police (involved in Bhima-Koregaon investigation) was objectionable.

Hence, he wanted the role of these officers to be investigated. But ministers in the Maharashtra government met police officers one morning, and the centre ordered its transfer to the NIA at 3 pm the same day, he said while addressing the reporters.

"This is wrong as per the constitution because criminal investigations come within the state's jurisdiction," news agency ANI quoted him as telling reporters.

Reportedly, the NCP is part of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Agadi (alliance government headed by Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra).

The differences among the party leaders have erupted with respect to handing over of Bhima Koregaon case to the NIA.

A Pune sessions court on Friday allowed the transfer of the politically sensitive Bhima Koregaon case to an NIA court in Mumbai after Uddhav Thackeray-led-Maharashtra government gave a nod by giving 'No Objection' to the NIA taking over the probe.

The centre had transferred the case to the NIA on January 25, which relates to alleged inflammatory speeches at Elgar Parishad gathering, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, a day before the violence.

On January 1, 2018, Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district boiled up triggering massive violence in the area, during Dalit groups were celebrating 200 years of a British-era battle.

Then Pune police had filed cases against the activists and intellectuals who gave alleged inflammatory speeches.

The critics have accused then BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis, of jailing activists opposed to its ideology and branding them as "Urban Naxals".