It wasn’t an Official Investigation Committee: Vishwas Nangre Patil
Vishwas Nangre Patil, Inspector General of Police states that the investigation carried out by a ten-member committee was an unofficial investigation.
Pune Rural Police issued a public notice and denied the formation of an official committee for fact-findings of Bhima- Koregaon Violence.
The notice was issued after some of the media agencies posted news about Inspector General of Police Vishwas Nangare Patil had formed a committee to investigate more on the Bhima-Koregaon violence and the report was submitted but officials didn’t take further actions.
As per the issued notice, Pune Police clears that the committee formed wasn’t an official committee. The committee was formed by few activists and social leaders, cumulating into a ten-member committee.
The ten members included lawyers, anti-caste activists, and politicians working across Maharashtra. Pune city’s deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende, also a Republican Party of India leader, had headed the committee and accordingly a meeting was arranged.
“At the meeting, it was decided that a group of activists would cooperate with the police and ensure justice is done to the Dalit Bahujans who were attacked while on their way to Bhima Koregaon. A few of us then came together and also conducted a fact-finding exercise and compiled the report,” said Advocate Rahul Makhare, who was a part of the non-official fact-finding committee.
Inspector General of Police Vishwas Nangare Patil stated that the entire committee found was just an Independent activity and it has nothing to do with the Police department or any other agencies.
People from SC/ST community met him and discussed the prevailing conditions at that point in time and expressed their views on investigation the entire violence.
Vishwas Nangare Patil said that he was not aware that this committee had on its own carried out a parallel investigation and claimed that they were appointed by him.
“Only later when a report was submitted, I got to know about it. It reached me through the post. First, I don’t have the authority to appoint my own committee and second, how can I possibly allow one community to investigate, especially when the entire issue is about caste violence? We would be immediately castigated for siding with one community,” Nangre-Patil claimed.
Patil’s statement clears that the investigation undertaken by him was an independent exercise, not an official investigation. But the things revealed in the independent exercise might be the same as the official report, as everything points at the failure of the police in controlling the violence.
