Elgar Parishad: Sudhir Dhawale not to depose before panel

Mumbai: Sudhir Dhawale, an activist arrested for allegedly having links with Maoists, on Saturday refused to depose as witness before the enquiry commission probing the 2018 Koregaon Bhima caste violence.

He is the second accused in the Pune Elgar Parishad case after lawyer Surendra Gadling to refuse to depose before the commission as witness.

While Gadling had stated that he does not wish to depose as witness because his testimony would prejudice his defence before the trial court, Dhawale on the other hand told the commission that he did not have “faith and confidence” in the commission.

Dhawale didn’t depose before the commission, as he has objection on former chief secretary Sumit Mullick being part of the commission. He had already filed an application before the commission requesting recusal of Mullick.

In his application seeking Mullick’s recusal, Dhawale had said, “Even Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar had pointed out the fact earlier that when the violence took place in Koregaon Bhima, Mullick was state government’s chief secretary and police administration did not provide any kind of protection to Dalits from the attacks during the commemoration of the 200 years of Koregaon Bhima battle”.

Since Dhawale refused to depose before the commission, its head retired Justice J.N. Patel ordered that he be sent back to judicial custody.

The commission in its order said, “In view of the fact that Dhawale has refused to give evidence on oath before the commission as he has no faith and confidence in it, however, he is ready to give a statement, the commission does not want to record his statement (sic).”

Ten activists, including Gadling and Dhawale, were arrested in 2018.