Heavy police deployment at Shaniwar Wada as a ‘preventive measure’

It may be recalled that on the occasion of 200th commemoration of the battle of Bhima Koregaon, members of the ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan’ had, on December 31, 2017, organised the Elgaar Parishad at the Shaniwar Wada, which was the seat of Peshwas till 1818.

Police claim that speeches made at Elgaar Parishad were at least partly responsible for instigating violence the next day, in which one person had died and several others were left injured.

During the investigation, police also claimed to have unearthed a much bigger plot by CPI-Maoist, a banned Naxalite group, to allegedly destabilise the country. Activists including Elgaar Parishad organiser Sudhir Dhawale, Kabir Kala Manch activists P Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navalakha and others were arrested in this case, which is now being investigated by the NIA.

Police sources said that controversial information regarding the Shaniwar Wada, posted on social media by a member of the ‘Bhima Koregaon Shaurya Din Prerna Abhiyan’ was recently spotted.