Accused of instigating the Bhima-Koregaon riots, Sambhaji Bhide says it's a conspiracy to say he was responsible for it
Dalit groups protest in Mumbai against the violence. Pic/PTI
Sambhaji Bhide, a veteran Hindutva activist, who is in the eye of a storm over the Bhima-Koregaon riots, has claimed he is not guilty and asked for withdrawal of all the charges levelled against him.
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Speaking for the first time after the local police registered a case against him, Bhide told media persons in his hometown Sangli on Friday that the truth will prevail. "I want the violence to be probed in depth and the culprits punished," he said, after writing to the district administration and police department that his name was being deliberately linked to the violence in Pune district.
Bhide is revered as a guiding force by several leaders of the BJP and RSS. The state is under pressure to arrest him because Dalit leaders have named him and another Hindutva leader, Milind Ekbote, as the main conspirators. The state government has ordered a judicial probe in the matter and is awaiting high court's directive to appoint a sitting judge on the inquiry commission.
"I am ready to face all kinds of probes. Appoint a judicial panel or ask the CBI to probe me. If willing, they can appoint Yamraj (Hindu god of death) as a presiding officer of the probe panel. What more can I say? Saying that we (Bhide and Ekbote) instigated the riots is like believing an astronomer who says he has seen a full moon at midnight on Amavasya," he said, adding, "It is a banav (conspiracy) to say that I was present at the riot site in Pune district and was also responsible for it."
A day after the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 2, the Pimpri police in Pune district filed a case against Bhide, Ekbote of Hindu Ekta Aghadi, and others under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and various sections of the IPC. Prakash Ambedkar has alleged that Hindu Ekta Aghadi and Bhide's Shiv Pratishthan were responsible for the violence.
With inputs from Agencies
Villagers blame outsiders
Pune: Residents of the village at the centre of the caste clashes have claimed that they have nothing to do with them and outsiders are to blame. Sangita Kamble, sarpanch, said, "Our village's name is Koregaon-Bhima, not Bhima-Koregaon. Secondly, we don't have any role to play in the caste conflict. In fact, we face damages as our shops were ransacked and vehicles destroyed." The villagers have sought a compensation of R1 crore to the next of the kin of Rahul Phatangale, who was killed during the January 1 clashes.
- Chaitraly Deshmukh
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