IPS officer Rashmi Shukla appears before Koregaon Bhima probe panel, Param Bir Singh absent

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IPS officer Rashmi Shukla appeared before the Koregaon Bhima Inquiry Commission in compliance with a summon issued to her in connection with the 2018 case of violence at the war memorial in Pune, but former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh remained absent.

Though Shukla appeared before the panel, her statement could not be recorded as she sought additional time to file an affidavit. Shukla told the commission that she was yet to receive some documents from the Pune police related to the Elgar Parishad event that was organised a day before the violence. The next date for Shukla's deposition is yet to be decided.

The two-member probe commission, headed by the retired chief justice of the Calcutta High Court JN Patel and also comprising former Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick, had issued summons to both Rashmi Shukla and Param Bir Singh on October 22 this year. Singh was Maharashtra's Additional Director General (Law and Order) in 2018 and Shukla was the Pune police commissioner when the violence took place at Koregaon Bhima in Pune district.

Shukla is now Additional Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and posted at Hyderabad. A magistrate's court in Mumbai on Wednesday declared Param Bir Singh a "proclaimed offender" in an extortion case registered against him and some other police officers in the city. Singh, currently posted as the Director General of Home Guards and facing multiple extortion cases, attended his office last in May, after which he went on leave.

The state police had told the Bombay High Court in October that his whereabouts were not known. As per the Pune police, violence broke out between caste groups near the war memorial during the bicentennial anniversary of the 1818 battle of Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018. Dalit organisations commemorate the victory of the East India Company over the Peshwa of Pune in the battle because British forces included soldiers from the oppressed Mahar community.

But some right-wing organisations had opposed the celebration, leading to the violence in 2018. One person had died and several others, including 10 police personnel, were injured in the incident.

Also Read: No protection, no hearing until we know where you are: Supreme Court replies to Param Bir Singh's plea

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