Koregaon-Bhima probe panel resumes regular hearing after over 75 days

The Koregaon-Bhima Inquiry Commission, probing the January 2018 violence near a memorial in Maharashtra's Pune district, on Monday resumed the day-to-day hearing over two-and-a-half months after it had suspended the proceedings in view of the rising COVID-19 graph.

The last hearing was conducted on November 15, 2021.

“The hearing was supposed to resume in early January this year but it was suspended due to the rise in coronavirus cases and postponed till January 31,” said commission's lawyer Ashish Satpute.

He said Sambhaji Shivale, a witness, deposed before the commission on Monday. Other witnesses, including the then Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla, is expected to depose later this week, he said.

Shukla, currently posted as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hyderabad, had filed her affidavit in the case.

Shukla was the Pune police commissioner when the violence had broken out at Koregaon Bhima in the Pune district.

Tejswi Satpute, the then additional SP of Pune rural police, is also expected to appear before the commission this week.

Satpute is currently serving as Solapur rural SP.

The two-member probe commission is headed by the retired chief justice of the Calcutta high court JN Patel and also comprises former Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick.

As per the Pune police, violence erupted between caste groups near the war memorial during the bicentennial anniversary of the 1818 battle of Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018.

Dalit organisations commemorate the victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa of Pune in the battle because British forces included soldiers from the oppressed Mahar community.

But some right-wing organisations had opposed the celebration, leading to the violence in 2018.

One person had died and several others, including 10 police personnel, were injured in the incident.