Bhima-Koregaon case transferred to NIA court; accused to appear before judge on Feb 28

A file photo of Rona Wilson, one of the accused in Bhima Koregaon case

A Pune-based sessions' judge court on Friday allowed the transfer of the Bhima Koregaon violence-Elgar Parishad case to a court under the jurisdiction of the National Investigative Agency (NIA).

The Maharashtra government hasn’t objected to the transfer of case to the NIA’s jurisdiction, according to news reports.

All the accused in the case have been asked to be produced before the Special NIA Court in Mumbai on Feb 28, as per news reports.

The NIA had moved a Special Court seeking transfer of the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon-Bhima case to a Special NIA Court in Mumbai on Jan 30 this year. The Pune Police had said at the time that they would hand over the case to the NIA only after getting written orders from Maharashtra Director General of Police.

The Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress had slammed the Centre's move to transfer the case abruptly to the NIA without the consent of the state government as "unconstitutional.

Demanding a probe into the manner in which the Pune Police had investigated the case, NCP leader Sharad Pawar had said the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is scared that its skeletons will come out in a fresh look at the case.

Senior minister Nawab Malik has labelled the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon-Bhima case as "totally fabricated" intended to malign intellectuals, Dalit and human rights activists by charging them with harbouring Maoistsand branding them as "urban Naxalites".

The case pertains to the December 31, 2017, Elgar Parishad in Pune, and the caste riots next day on January 1, 2018 in Koregaon-Bhima which left one dead, followed by the police swoop on over a dozen activists across India in June and August 2018 on charges of anti-national activities, planning to create political disturbances and wage a war against India, conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and overthrowing the government.

(with IANS inputs)