5 years on, Bhima Koregaon violence accused yet to get 60% of clone copies

Despite directions given by the special court to NIA to provide all the evidence, only 40% has been shared, says advocate for some of the accused in the case

It is almost five years since caste-based violence broke out at Bhima Koregaon in Pune but more than 60% of ‘clone copies’ of the evidence against the 15 accused, who are activists, lawyers, journalists, and professors, have not been shared with them.

A forensic clone is an exact, bit-for-bit copy of a piece of digital evidence. This includes files, folders, hard drives, and more. “It has been nearly five years now but 60% of the clone copies, which form crucial evidence collected by the prosecuting agencies against the accused, haven’t been shared with them,” says advocate Barun Kumar appearing for some of the accused in the case. He added, “A direction was given by the special NIA [National Investigation Agency] court to the central agency in May 2022 to provide all the clone copies [to the accused] and despite that only 40% has been shared.”

On June 6, 2018, Pune Police launched a crackdown and arrested Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson in connection with the case. Varvara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves were arrested on August 28 the same year. Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde surrendered before the NIA on April 14, 2020. Hany Babu was arrested on July 28, while Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Jyoti Jagtap were arrested in September. The late Father Stan Swamy was arrested on October 8, 2020, and died on July 5, 2021, while in judicial custody.

On August 18, 2022, the then Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit had told the trial court to frame charges against the accused within three months. However, on November 25, 2022, special NIA judge R.J. Kataria said it would take another year to decide if charges need to be framed in the case. Currently, discharge applications filed by some of the accused are being heard by the court.

The history of Bhima Koregaon, a small village in Pune district, can be traced back to January 1, 1818, when a few hundred Mahar soldiers of the East India Company, under the British, defeated a massive Peshwa army. A pillar (Vijay Stambh) was erected by the East India Company in memory of those who fought the battle and includes names of the Mahar soldiers. On January 1, 1927, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had visited the war memorial on the 109th anniversary of the battle and the site’s popularity has grown since then.

On December 31, 2017, a public meeting was organised called ‘Elgar Parishad’ and attracted many Dalits and Bahujans. However, the following day, they were attacked by a mob and the violence resulted in the death of a 30-year-old Maratha man and injuries to several others.

On January 2, 2018, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide. Subsequently, 22 FIRs were registered in the case and one of them named Mr. Dhawale and members of the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) Mr. Gaichor, Mr. Gorkhe and Ms. Jagtap. KKM is a troupe made up of Dalit and working-class musicians and poets who came together after the anti-Muslim Gujarat riots of 2002.