Bhima-Koregaon case: Pune court reserves order on transfer of probe to NIA

A Pune court on Friday reserved its order on the transferring of the Bhima-Koregaon case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The Maharashtra state government, in an application filed before the court, objected to transferring all the court records, seized articles from the file of this court to an NIA court in Mumbai. 

Additional Sessions Judge SR Navandar will pronounce the order in the matter on February 14. The NIA had earlier filed a petition in the Pune sessions court on January 29 seeking transfer of the case to the agency's court in Mumbai.

"That present application is not legally tenable under the provisions of law and particularly according to the provisions of UAPA 1967 and NIA Act 2008," the application read. 

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The application said that the investigation machinery of NIA has not given legal and sufficient reasons for transferring the proceedings. "It is submitted that the offence is committed within the local jurisdiction of the Pune court and the investigating authority after completion of the investigation filed the charge-sheet before this court and as such, the matter is fixed for framing of the charges," the application added.

The application further submitted that Section 22 (2) of the NIA Act empowers the state government to constitute one or more special court for the trial of the offence under any or all the enactments.

"Therefore, in view of this provisions for the appointment of a special court to conduct the scheduled offences, the Government of Maharashtra has established the special courts," the application said.

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The violence at Bhima Koregoan and the subsequent arrests

Violence had erupted at Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune district on January 1, 2018, where supporters had gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. This resulted in the death of one person and leaving several injured. Subsequently, the Pune police arrested activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale and P Varavara Rao for allegedly inciting the Bhima Koregoan violence through their speech at the Elgar Parishad meeting on December 31, 2017.   

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(with ANI inputs)