After NIA investigation into Bhima Koregaon case: NCP decides on parallel probe

MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has started flexing its muscles in the Uddhav Thackeray government, especially on the NPR issue and the Bhima Koregaon case, which was handed over by the Thackeray government to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate. The NCP has now decided that a parallel probe would be conducted by the state into the case.

The NCP has also resolved that some ‘questions’ in the National Population Register (NPR) will be ‘cleared’ among the three parties in the government –– the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress –– and only then will it be included in the NPR exercise that would be taken up in the state.

At the more than two-hour meeting in Mumbai, NCP chief Sharad Pawar addressed his party ministers and stressed the need to take a strong stand on core issues like the Bhima Koregaon violence and NPR issue.


Maharashtra minority affairs minister Nawab Malik, who attended the meeting, told reporters later that home minister Anil Deshmukh will order an inquiry into the Bhima Koregaon case. “Within hours of the state government meeting to order an inquiry, the Centre decided to give the probe to the NIA. Section 10 of the NIA Act states that the state government can order a parallel probe in the same case that the NIA is investigating. So, our home minister Anil Deshmukh, after completing the formalities, will order a probe into it,” said Malik.