MUMBAI: Inquiry commission appointed to probe into the Bhima-Koregaon incident has extended deadline to submit affidavits to July 16 even as it received 117 affidavits in the past month, officials have said.
In the month of February, Maharashtra government formed the inquiry commission under former Kolkata High Court Justice J N Patel and state Chief Secretary as its member. The commission has been asked to submit its report within four months.
The commission made a public appeal on May 12 to the political parties, social organisations, institutions, victims and witnesses of the January 1 Bhima-Koregaon riots and other individuals to file affidavits before the commission till June 10.
The commission received a total of 177 affidavits of which 169 were filed at the Pune office of the commission while eight were filed in Mumbai office, the officials from the commission have said.
However, there are many more individuals and organisations who have conveyed to the commission that they are yet to file affidavits and hence the commission has extended the limit for filing affidavits by another month.
"Now anybody who wants to say anything on the incident can file their affidavit till July 16, 2018," V V Palnitkar, the secretary of the commission has conveyed.
The commission is expected to inquire and analyse into the chronology of events associated with the Bhima-Koregaon riots and the factors responsible for them. They will verify if any particular individual or organisation were responsible for it and whether the district administration and the police erred in judging the situation and were ill prepared to handle it.