Koregaon-Bhima panel gets final extension till April 8: Govt

The Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government on Tuesday gave the "final" extension till April 8 this year to the Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commission, which is probing the violence that took place on January 1, 2018 around Koregaon Bhima village in Pune district.

The earlier extension was granted to the commission on November 9, 2019 till February 8, 2020.

In a notification issued on Tuesday, the state Home department granted the "final" extension till April 8, 2020, and asked the panel to submit its report.

The commission comprises former chief justice of Kolkata High Court Justice J N Patel and former IAS officer Sumeet Mullick.

Notably, the commission had last month asked the government to wind it up, saying it cannotfunction due to "want of money" and the government did notseem to be "serious" about it.

Earlier this month, the government had said that salaries of staff of the commission were released.

Violence had taken place near the Koregaon Bhima memorial during the bicentennial celebration of an 1818 battle where the East India Company's forces, which included sepoys of Mahar caste, a Dalit community, defeated the army of the Brahmin Peshwa ruler of Pune.

Dalits commemorate the victory as a symbol of defeat of the old Brahmanical order. Pune Police had claimed that inflammatory statements made a day earlier at Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on December 31, 2017 allegedly backed by Maoists, led to the violence.