Police shouldn't probe Koregaon-Bhima violence case as per BJP's 'whims and fancies': Cong

The Congress Friday hoped that the Maharashtra Police will conduct investigations in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case as per the law and not according to the "whims and fancies" of the BJP.

The Supreme Court Friday refused to interfere with the arrest of the five rights activists in connection with the case and declined to appoint a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe their arrest.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, refused the plea filed by noted historian Romila Thapar and others, seeking the immediate release of the activists.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the apex court has decided that police will conduct the investigations in the case and no one can be held guilty before conviction in a court.

"We hope that any person who is found in any clandestine activity against the Indian state would be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law rather than according to the whims and fancies of (BJP chief) Amit Shah who has already seen the writing on the wall in the five election-bound states," he told reporters.

Polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are scheduled this year.

Therefore, "frustrated and scared", Shah, fearing defeat in these poll-bound states, is prone to making intemperate remarks, and the Congress rejects them," he told reporters.

Shah, attacking the Congress for its alleged support to Maoists, fake activists and corrupt elements, has said "there is only one place for idiocy and it's called the Congress".

The BJP chief's response came after the Supreme Court judgment.

The Congress leader said, "I do not think the law or the Constitution permits anyone to be held guilty without the verdict of a court".

Shah has been a "Tarhipaar" (externed) and has been in jail. "He should know what that is - it is only on conviction that anybody is found guilty," he said.

On the BJP demanding an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his support to "urban naxals", Surjewala said, "Let (prime minister) Narendra Modi and Shah first apologise to the nation for inviting dreaded Pakistani ISI to our Pathankot Air Base."
"Let Shah apologise for reposing confidence in the ISI which is the benefactor, protector and harbinger and exporter of terrorism from Pakistan to India. Why was he having confidence in them?