Till Friday morning the members of Sambhaji Bhide's Shiv Pratisthan Hindustan's Mumbai unit held to the story that Bhide's programme at Mumbai was on schedule. However, at 3.30 pm they held a press conference to announce that the event was postponed. Sambahji Bhide referred as Guruji by his followers was scheduled to talk at Parel's Meghwadi ground on Sunday January 7.
When asked about the new date, Balwant Dalvi, the head of Mumbai division of the group said, "Tell us when the riots and everything will end, I will tell you when the talk of Guruji will be held at Mumbai."
Sambhaji Bhide has been named as an accuse in the Bhima Koregaon violence. His supporters claim that the FIR is with hidden agenda of maligning the image of Bhide. "The FIR by a woman in Pune is politically motivated Guruji, has done nothing, we believe in equality of all caste and never defame or say negative about anyone or any caste. Our guruji told us to not go ahead with the event hence we postponed it," said Dalvi.
Dalvi and his fellow group members say that they did it because of Guruji's orders. However, members within the group also claim that police has been continuously putting pressure on them to camel the event fearing law and order situation.
Only on Thursday the police denied permission to an event where Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and Student leader Umar Khalid were to speak in Mumbai's Vile Parle.
Bhide camp while claiming that they will support police in the investigation also want the police to examine the speeches of Mevani and Khalid that they gave during the Bhima Koregaon event in Pune.
