Lakhs of Dalits to gather at Koregaon Bhima today, heavy security arranged
Pune/Mumbai, Jan 1 (IBNS): Lakhs of people, especially Dalits, are expected to gather around the war memorial at Koregaon Bhima in Maharashtra which witnessed violence a year ago on the same day, prompting the administration to deploy heavy security forces. However, latest reports said the Bombay High Court has refused to grant interim relief to Bhim Army for the public meeting in Pune.
Reports said a petition was earlier filed before the High Court on Sunday seeking a direction against the state government from taking any action against the Bhim Army, a Dalit- organisation spearheaded by lawyer Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan and Vinay Ratan Singh. The HC, reports said, denied to grant any relief to Bhim Army for the rally.
Avoiding a repeat of the violence between the Dalits and the right-wing groups, the administration has placed 5,000 police personnel, 1,200 Home Guards and 12 companies of the Rapid Action Force besides the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) at the war memorial.
The memorial is dedicated to a battle in which Dalit soldiers fought the British and also defeated the army of the upper caste Peshwas or rulers.
Bhima Koregaon case: SC rejects plea for SIT; activists' house arrest extended
On Tuesday, which marks the 201st anniversary of the battle, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad is scheduled to visit the war memorial.
This comes after Azad was denied permission to address a gathering in Pune on Dec 30.
Some 6,000 police personnel along with 200 personnel of the SRPF have been deployed there as well.
However, there has been no prohibition on Azad's visit to the war memorial.
Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, is also likely to visit the memorial.
He had called a massive bandh across Maharashtra last year after the violence at Koregaon-Bhima on Jan 1.
Drone cameras are also in operation to help the police.
Those who have been banned from visiting Koregaon Bhima include right-wing leader Milind Ekbote and members of the left-leaning cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM).
Some members of the KKM are accused in the Elgar Parishad case.
Their provocative speeches at the parishad (conclave), funded by Maoists, on Dec 31, last year had triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima on Jan 1.
Earlier some activists- dubbed as Urban Naxals- were arrrested for icniting violence.
On August 29, the five arrested activists — Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha — were put under house arrest following an apex court order.
This came after the Pune police had raided the houses of the activists in connection with the Elgaar Parishad probe. The police had also raided two others, Anand Teltumbde in Goa and Stan Swamy in Ranchi, on August 28 but they had not been arrested.
The police claimed to have stumbled upon evidence of the involvement of these activists in the activities of CPI(Maoist). The police claim that speeches made at Elgaar Parishad had played a role in instigating violence the next day, January 1, 2018, when lakhs of people had gathered in Pune for the 200th-anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
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