With all the evasions, one assertion made by the Pune (Rural) police stood out: They had found no connection of the Elgar Parishad with the violent incidents of January 1, 2018.
Yet, the case against the 'Bhima Koregaon 16', which is based on exactly this alleged connection, continues, and seven of the accused continue to be behind bars under the UAPA, explains Jyoti Punwani.
January 1 marks 7 years of the Bhima Koregaon violence that shook Maharashtra. On that day, Dalits on their way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the historic battle of Bhima Koregaon were targeted, and a Maratha youth died in the clashes that ensued.
Today, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis finds himself in a similar situation. Amid mounting protests against the alleged custodial death of a Nomadic Tribal youth in Parbhani on December 15, the CM has promised a judicial inquiry.
While two leaders of Hindutva organisations were initially named as accused for the Bhima Koregaon violence, later, 16 intellectuals, labeled as 'Urban Naxals' by the police, were arrested for having instigated the Bhima Koregaon violence by holding an Elgar Parishad in Pune, where alleged inflammatory speeches were made.
Today, Fadnavis has again raised the 'Urban Naxal' bogey, linking Rahul Gandhi with these groups, and alleging that they had worked against the BJP in the recent Assembly elections.
However, the evidence before the judicial commission appointed by Fadnavis' government into the Bhima Koregaon violence, indicates that the violence was the handiwork of groups opposed to the Dalits converging at Bhima Koregaon. The Commission, having finished its hearings, is soon to give its report.
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Three questions are crucial in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case:
- Was there any intelligence input about tension during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon in which lakhs of Dalits were supposed to participate?
- Could the violence that broke out at Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018 have been prevented?
- Was there a link between the Elgar Parishad held on December 31, 2017 in Pune and the violence that broke out the next day 40 km away near Bhima Koregaon?
What answers did the police involved in the investigation give to these questions?
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The judicial commission headed by retired Justice J N Patel cross-examined two sets of policemen: Those posted at the areas that witnessed the violence -- the Pune Rural Police -- and those posted in Pune city, where the Elgar Parishad was held -- the Pune City Police.
Their replies were mostly a string of denials and contradictions, but among these, emerged some significant revelations.
Two of them are most important:
1. The majority of the policemen testified that there was no connection between the Bhima Koregaon violence and the Elgar Parishad.
2. The police had enough warnings about the Bhima Koregaon violence but did little to prevent it.
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December 31, 2017 the Elgar Parishad -- what Pune (City) Police said 'Peaceful Elgar Parishad'
Testifying about the Elgar Parishad, Pune City police uniformly said that permission to hold it had been given without hesitation, and the event passed off peacefully, with nobody being arrested after it was over.
So uneventful was the event that neither had the then Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla gone to Shaniwarwada, where the Parishad was held, to oversee the proceedings, nor had she looked at the video of its proceedings.
(Rashmi Shukla is now the DGP of Maharashtra. The three cases against her of phone tapping of Opposition leaders Sanjay Raut, Eknath Khadse and Nana Patole, were quashed or closed after the Shiv Sena-BJP government took over in June 2022.)
Even the then state home minister, Devendra Fadnavis, had not called for the video of the Elgar Parishad proceedings.
The officer in charge of the bandobast for the Parishad, Ravindra Sengaonkar, additional commissioner of police, south region, Pune City, didn't even think it necessary to file a report on the Parishad, nor was he asked for such a report.
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Tenuous link between Elgar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon violence
Of the many policemen who testified before the Commission, only two linked the Elgar Parishad with the Bhima Koregaon violence, both from the Pune City Police.
Ravindra Sengaonkar was the first policeman to state in front of the Commission that the Elgar Parishad was the reason for the violence at Bhima Koregaon. But he could offer no evidence to back this claim. All he could say was that the speeches made at the Parishad were "very provocative" and could have left "long term psychological scars".
Asked for evidence of those 'long term scars", Sengaonkar pointed to the violence on January 1 and then on January 3, during a bandh by Dalit groups protesting against the Bhima Koregaon violence.
These violent incidents took place less than 72 hours after the speeches. Hardly enough of a time span to describe them as "long-term scars".
Shivaji Pawar was the second policeman to link the Elgar Parishad with the Bhima Koregaon violence. But Pawar, who was the investigating officer in the Elgar Parishad case, refused to elaborate on this alleged link, saying only that the charge sheet contained everything.
The Elgar Parishad case was based on an FIR filed a week after the Parishad was held, by Tushar Damgude, a businessman and a supporter of Hindutvavadi leader Sambhaji Bhide, head of the Shiv Pratisthan Hindustan.
Signficantly, Bhide was among the two men named as accused immediately after the violence, in an FIR filed by eyewitness Anita Sawale. The other was Milind Ekbote, ex-BJP corporarator.
Questioned about his investigation, Pawar could not name a single person whose statement he had recorded, who had been an eyewitness to both events: The Elgar Parishad held in Pune, and the violence at Bhima Koregaon the next day. Indeed, he could not even name a single witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence whose statement he had recorded.
In fact, he even said it was not necessary for him to look at the 36 FIRs filed by the Pune (Rural) police against those responsible for the violence that took place on January 1.
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Police claim ignorance
The Pune City police were reluctant to admit any knowledge about the activities of Hindutva organisations.
Though newspapers had reported that some of these organisations had opposed the Elgar Parishad, the Pune police said they were unaware of this.
Even Shivaji Pawar, the investigating officer of the Elgar Parishad case, had not thought it necessary to investigate which organisations were opposing the Parishad.
Surprisingly, the Pune City police stuck to this stand despite admitting that they had received an input from the State Intelligence Department on December 25, which said that there was a possibility of opposition to the Elgar Parishad by 'Sangh, BJP and their casteist organisations, Fascists, RSS, Vishva Hindu Parishad, ABVP, Sanatan, Samast Aghadi Shri Milind Ekbote.'
Not only did Shivaji Pawar claim ignorance about the report, he even expressed doubts that it was an intelligence report.
Even more surprising was the claim by Assistant Commisisoner Ravindra Sengaonkar, overall in charge of the investigation into the Elgar Parishad case, that he knew nothing about the Romila Thapar petition.
In August 2018, the renowned historian and a few others had approached the Supreme Court for an SIT to investigate the Elgar Parishad case. This petition, that alleged that the arrests by the Pune Police were aimed at curbing dissent, had made headlines.
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No basis for 'Frontal organisation' charge
Among those involved in organizing the Elgar Parishad was the cultural organisation Kabir Kala Manch. Three of its members are in jail, as accused in the Elgar Parishad case. Police describe the Manch as a 'frontal organisation' of the Maoists.
Both Sengaonkar and Pawar were asked how they classified an organisation as a 'frontal organisation' of the Maoists. Both could cite no notification which empowered them to do so. They both quoted only one source: A 2014 reply in the Lok Sabha by the then minister of state for Home, R B N Singh, to a question asked by BJP MP A K Nana Patil, which mentioned Kabir Kala Manch as a 'frontal organisation of the CPI(Maoist)'.
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Bhima Koregaon violence, what Pune (Rural) police said
Testimonies of the Pune Rural police were rife with denials and evasive answers. These were the men who had witnessed the violence on January 1, and investigated cases related to it.
While the first FIR filed after the violence blamed Sambhaji Bhide and ex-BJP corporator Milind Ekbote, for it, police skirted around the role of these two leaders.
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What bandh, say police
Dalits go every year to Bhima Koregaon on January 1, to observe the anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon, in which the British, aided by Mahar soldiers, defeated the Peshwas, whose reign was notorious for its harsh practice of untouchability.
2018 marked the 200th anniversary of this battle, and lakhs of Dalits were expected to reach there.
But Dalits testified that for the first time on January 1, 2018, they found shops en route shut as part of a bandh. This greatly inconvenienced them as they used to buy water and food from these shops.
However, the police posted all along the route to Bhima Koregaon denied that there was any bandh. They only admitted that some shops were closed.
This was also the first time, eyewitnesses told the Commission, that they faced attacks on their way to Bhima Koregaon. Those who threw stones at them were carrying saffron flags, they deposed.
The police admitted that a 1,200-strong mob carrying saffron flags had gathered en route to Bhima Koregaon from 9 am to 11 am. They evaded a direct reply when asked whether this had ever happened before.
When asked whether they had immediately dispersed the mob, the police gave contradictory answers. First they replied that when told to disperse, the mob obediently went off towards their villages. Then they said that just a few hours later, they had to use tear gas and a lathi charge to disperse a stone-throwing mob holding saffron flags.
The police admitted that they had heard that there was a call for Marathas to gather in large numbers on January 1 at village Vadhu Budruk, en route to Bhima Koregaon. Hence, they'd called up the leader of the Maratha Kranti Morcha. His reply, that he had no such plan, had satisfied them.
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Police inaction despite build up
These unprecedented events that took place on January 1: The bandh, the mobs carrying saffron flags, and finally, the stone throwing on the Dalits did so against a certain backdrop.
On December 29, a clash had broken out at village Vadhu Budruk between Dalits and Marathas over rival claims as to who had performed the last rites of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, Shivaji Maharaj's son.
Sambhaji Maharaj's samadhi lies in the village, as does the samadhi of Govind Gopal Mahar, a Dalit who is said to have performed the former's last rites in defiance of the orders of Aurangzeb, who had had the Chhatrapati killed.
This clash between the Dalits and Marathas, and the animosity that followed it, were enough indication that trouble was likely to erupt on January 1. The police were aware of this backdrop, yet, they seem to have done little to prevent the events of January 1.
* Three gram panchayats had handed over letters to the police, declaring that they were going to observe a bandh on January 1. However, the police claimed the constable who received these letters had not brought them to the notice of his seniors, so they had no idea of the bandh being planned.
* Except for one officer, Sandeep Pakhale, all policemen claimed ignorance of the many social media messages calling for a bandh and observance of January 1 as a 'Black Day' in protest against the 'false history' being propagated by Dalits. (The 'false history' referred to the claims about Chhatrapati Sambhaji's last rites, and also about the significance of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.)
These messages urged the followers of Hindutvavadi leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote to gather on the morning of January 1.
But even the officer in charge of the cyber cell claimed he had no clue about these messages.
* The sarpanch of village Vadhu Budruk, where lay the samadhi of Chhatrapati Sambhaji, revealed to the Commission that in the last few years, Milind Ekbote's organisation had been looking after the samadhi, even though only the gram panchayat was authorised to look after it. Police said they had no idea of this. (Ekbote has propagated the view that a Maratha family had performed the last rites of Chhatrapati Sambhaji.)
* Though Ekbote's lawyer had admitted in the Bombay high court that the former BJP corporator had visited village Vadhu Budruk between December 26 and 30, 2017, the police insisted that their investigations had revealed no such thing.
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No connection between Parishad and violence
With all these evasions, one assertion made by the Pune (Rural) police stood out: They had found no connection of the Elgar Parishad with the violent incidents of January 1, 2018.
Even Shivaji Pawar, the investigating officer of the Elgar Parishad case, was forced to concede that there was no connection between the accused arrested for the violence at Bhima Koregaon and those arrested for the Elgar Parishad.
Yet, the case against the 'Bhima Koregaon 16', which is based on exactly this alleged connection, continues, and seven of the accused continue to be behind bars under the UAPA.
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To sum up, police testimonies about what they witnessed at the Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017, and the next day at Bhima Koregaon, fly in the face of the official narrative that the Bhima Koregaon violence was instigated by those who organised the Elgar Parishad.
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