New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday alleged that the Bhima Koregaon protest and violence was part of a larger conspiracy and not a one-off incident.
“Bhima Koregaon is not just one incident. It is part of a larger conspiracy. We have made multiple crackdowns and found that they were planning more such incidents. They are colluding with the Naxals and giving a face to them. Many pseudo-liberals went to Supreme Court and but the apex court ruled in our favour,” Fadnavis said while speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi.
The CM also said that he does not recognise extreme Right or Left, and he will take action against those who are acting against the Constitution.
On September 28, Fadnavis welcomed the Supreme Court’s refusal to interfere with the probe by the state police against five Left-wing activists in connection with violence in Bhima-Koregaon in December last year.
Fadnavis said the decision of the top court proved that there was no conspiracy behind action by the state police against Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha. The five are under arrest at their respective homes since 29 August.
Fadnavis was reacting soon after the Supreme Court declined to appoint an SIT to probe the arrest of the five activists by the Pune police.
The court said the arrests were not because of dissent of activists but there was prima facie material to show their link with banned CPI (Maoist) organisation.
The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists.
Fadnavis said political parties should not support the arrested persons for political reasons after the SC verdict, “otherwise the political parties will stand exposed.”
Prominent Telugu poet Rao was arrested on August 28 from Hyderabad, while activists Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and civil liberties activist Navlakha from Delhi.
The majority verdict by the Supreme Court had said the protection of house arrest of the activists will remain in force for four more weeks to enable the accused to seek appropriate legal remedy at appropriate legal forum.