Pune firing: 3 months on, no sign of probe

Although three months have passed since the state government announced the setting up of a judicial probe to investigate the police firing in Maval taluka in August, the probe is yet to
take off.

In the absence of clear guidelines from the state government, the district authorities are at sea about the probe. The death of three farmers in the police firing on August 9 had compelled home minister RR Patil to announce the setting up of the judicial probe.

Kantabai Thakar (45), Moreshwar Sathe (40) and Shamrao Tupe (29) died on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, during a demonstration against the proposed closed pipeline to lift water from Pavana river to Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The then superintendent of police (Pune rural), Sandeep Karnik, was blamed by local political leaders for mismanaging the protest and was subsequently transferred to Mumbai. Patil, while responding to the matter on the floor of the legislative assembly on August 10, had announced the setting up of a time-bound one-man judicial probe into the incident.

Pune district collector Vikas Deshmukh had also ordered an inquiry into the matter by the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Maval, Sanjay Patil. Patil had promised that the probe would be completed within three months.

The probe was to be conducted by retired justice of the Bombay high court, MG Gaikwad. However, three months after the incident, no progress has been made. Due to the promulgation of the judicial probe, the probe by the magistrate was dropped.

Enquires with the home department of the Pune district collectorate revealed that no notification has been issued about the dates of commencement of the probe. As of now, a couple of rooms in the old Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) building are being fixed up to act as offices for the judicial probe.

Also, the home department is finalising the staff to work for the probe. A team of 15 serving and retired revenue employees have been selected to work.

Commenting on the inordinate delay, Maval MLA Bala Bhegade said, “I will look into the matter soon."