'What's a document seized by NIA doing in the Bhima Koregaon Commission?'

There exists a curious link between Advocate Niteen Pradhan's client Milind Ekbote and Harshali Potdar: Both have blamed each other for the Bhima Koregaon violence.
Jyoti Punwani reports.

"What's a document seized by NIA doing in the Bhima Koregaon Commission?" is the question that saw sparks fly during the Bhima Koregaon Commission hearings.

Retired Justice J N Patel has always insisted that the Commission of Inquiry into the January 1, 2018 violence at Bhima Koregaon that he heads has nothing to do with the UAPA case against 16 intellectuals who are accused of instigating the violence.

The FIR in this case was filed by the Pune police, and the case is currently being investigated by the NIA.

But the two separate entities intertwined on Thursday's hearing of the Commission, resulting in heated exchanges between witness Harshali Potdar and Niteen Pradhan, counsel for Milind Ekbote.

All day, Pradhan had asked social activist Potdar a series of questions from a xeroxed booklet that appeared to contain the beliefs of the Republican Panther Jatiya Antachi Chalwal, the organisation to which Potdar as well as Sudhir Dhawale, one of the 16 Bhima Koregaon accused, belong.

The xeroxed booklet bore the name of Sharad Gaikwad, president of the organisation, as publisher.

Potdar refused to own or verify the bunch of xeroxed pages, and insisted that the original be shown to her.

When, at the end of the day, she repeated this same answer to yet another question, advocate Pradhan said, "Where will I get the original? It is lying with the NIA."

Potdar immediately demanded to know how Pradhan had got a copy of a document which was with the NIA, to which Pradhan replied that as counsel, he need not reveal his source.

Pradhan pointed out that in her affidavit filed before the Commission, Potdar had attached the panchnama listing the material seized from her office by the Pune police in April 2018, and this document was listed there.

Pradhan then submitted an application to the Commission that the NIA be asked to produce all the documents seized under the panchnama to the Commission. The Commission has ordered special public prosecutor for the Maharashtra government Shishir Hiray to procure the document from the publisher.

In a way, the NIA case and the Commission of Inquiry got linked when social activist Harshali Potdar appeared before the Commission. Her name features in the FIR against the Bhima Koregaon accused, currently being investigated by the NIA.

There also exists a curious link between Pradhan's client Milind Ekbote and Harshali Potdar: Both have blamed each other for the Bhima Koregaon violence.

It may be recalled that Milind Ekbote, whom Pradhan represents, was, along with Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide, named in the first FIR filed by the Pune police in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence of January 1, 2018. A former BJP councillor, Ekbote is also head of Samasta Hindu Aghadi.

Ekbote was arrested in March, after the Supreme Court rejected his anticipatory bail application. He was released on bail in April.

Sambhaji Bhide was never arrested as the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis gave him a clean chit in the Maharashtra assembly.

Potdar, a social activist who has a master's in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, was among those active in helping to organise the Elgar Parishad at Shaniwarwada in Pune, on December 31, 2017.

As reported in Rediff Why is this man scared of Uddhav's government?, Ekbote had tried to prevent the Elgar Parishad from being held.

In his affidavit, he links the speeches made at the Parishad to the violence at Bhima Koregaon, which he describes as a 'Leftist conspiracy'.

This is the same allegation made by first the Pune police and then the NIA.

In her affidavit and her deposition, Potdar has said Ekbote and Bhide and their followers were responsible for initiating and instigating the violence at Bhima Koregaon.

Potdar's deposition will continue next month.

• Bhima Koregaon Hearings

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com