Mumbai, April 18: Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) President Prakash Ambedkar on Wednesday alleged that the raids on Dalit activists in which the Maharashtra Police have seized electronic gadgets was intended to destroy evidences pertaining to the Koregaon-Bhima riots of January 1.
Meeting media persons here, he said that police have confiscated laptops and other materials which prove the link between Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide alias Bhide Guruji, who heads the right-wing organization Shiv Pratishthan.
Besides there was evidence of another right-wing leader Raosaheb Patil who had earlier appealed to kill Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Pune's Guardian Minister Girish Bapat, added Ambedkar, the grandson of the Architect of Indian Constitution, B.R. Ambedkar.
"All this evidence were submitted to Fadnavis in which Bhide's links with the Koregaon-Bhima riots are proved. However, the CM is misleading by claiming that yesterday's (Tuesday's) raids were connected to investigating Maoist supporters in urban centres," he said.
Ambedkar said he had asked Fadnavis to probe Patil, but nothing was done despite the death threats issued by him on his (Patil's) Facebook page, and said the raids in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and even New Delhi were "to recover the evidences" collected by the Dalit activists.
In a major swoop early on Tuesday, Pune police teams raided the homes and offices of over half a dozen Dalit activists and those involved with the Kabir Kala Manch, which had organized a Elgaar Conference in Pune on December 31.
The following day, January 1, caste riots erupted in Koregaon-Bhima caste riots which left one dead, and culminated in a Maharashtra shutdown on January 3 called by BBM.
Ambedkar said that the state government was threatening the Dalit community by these raids on the activists instead of arresting Bhide and said he would organize a siege of the Maharashtra Legislature during the upcoming monsoon session.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
SC frowns upon Jharkhand HC for not pronouncing verdict in criminal cases, seeks report from all HCs
_vb_42.jpeg)
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday expressed surprise that the Jharkhand High Court has not pronounced verdicts in 67 criminal appeals after reserving judgement and asked all high courts to submit report in a month on cases where judgements are pending.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh termed the development as "disturbing", and said it will law down some mandatory guidelines on the issue.
"This cannot be allowed to happen," the bench said, as it sought reports from all the high courts in four weeks on cases where judgement has been reserved on or before January 31, 2025 but verdict has not been pronounced till date.
The top court passed the directions after perusing the report filed by registrar general of the Jharkhand High Court in which it said in 56 criminal appeals heard by division bench from January, 2022 till December, 2024, the verdict has not been pronounced despite order being reserved.
It also noted that before the single bench judge, judgement has not been pronounced in 11 criminal appeals despite order being reserved.
The top court was hearing a plea of four life convicts, who have approached through advocate Fauzia Shakil, claiming that the Jharkhand high court had reserved orders on their appeals against conviction in 2022 but did not pronounce verdicts due to which they were not able to claim the benefit of remission.
