Koregaon: Pune Police may file charges by Feburuary 23

Mumbai: The Pune police, investigating the Elgaar Parishad for its alleged links with the banned outfit –– CPI (Maoists) –– is likely to file its second chargesheet by February 23, a senior police officer in know of the development told ET.

Police had claimed that the speeches made at Elgaar Parishad, an event held on 31 December 2017 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon, were partly responsible for triggering the violence on January 1, 2018. According to them, the Elgaar Parishad event was allegedly funded and supported by Maoists.

But the official in the know added that the city police have not been able to make much headway in unearthing the ‘money trail’. Reports submitted by the Mumbai Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) state that they have not been able to extract any “deleted emails”. “In the past, we had recovered email exchanges between the arrested accused discussing a plan to kill the PM in a Rajiv Gandhi-type incident,” the official said. The FSL was asked to see if there were any deleted email exchanges between the arrested accused on this, but they have not been to extract anything on this topic,” the official said.


In June last year, the Pune police had arrested five people, including prominent lawyers and activists –– Delhi-based activist Rona Wilson, Nagpurbased lawyer Surendra Gadling, Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, former ‘Prime Minister Rural Development’ fellow Mahesh Raut and Sudhir Dhawale of Republican Panthers.