Milind Ekbote, a Hindutva leader and one of the prime accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence that took place in January 2018 has been sent to police custody till 19 March for inciting violence, as per a reports.
He was detained from his house in Shivajinagar in Pune on Wednesday, 14 March the PRO of the Pune Rural Police told ANI.
The detainment came after the Supreme Court dismissed Ekbote’s application for anticipatory bail, reports Scroll.in.
Ekbote had moved the Supreme Court after his application had been turned away by the Bombay High Court (1 February) and Pune Court (22 January), the report adds.
According to the Scroll report, the Supreme Court had, on 7 February, allowed Ekbote interim anticipatory bail and two weeks later, also said that the interim order would be considered valid until the next hearing.
The court had also said that if he was arrested before the next hearing took place, he should be released on bail if he managed to furnish a bond of Rs 1 lakh.
Following the outbreak of the violence in January, the Pune police had reportedly filed a case against Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, another right-wing leader, for inciting violence.
As reported by DNA, the Chief Minister had faced a lot of backlash for not ‘acting immediately’ against Ekbote, who is the chief of Samasta Hindu Ekta Aghadi, a right-wing organisation, which allowed him to roam free.
Chief Minister Fadnavis had on Tuesday, 13 March, called for all cases in the Bhima Koregaon violence, barring the most serious and important ones, to be withdrawn. As reported by Scroll, the police had earlier filed 58 cases against 162 people.
However, in response to those challenging his statement, he had also said: The government will not withdraw the cases against history-sheeters who took advantage of the situation and indulged in looting,” as reported by DNA.
The police raided all hotels and lodges in Pune and Kolhapur in search of Ekbote. Combing operations were conducted, Ekbote’s followers were detained and more than 100 call records were examined to track down the accused.CM Devendra Fadnavis, as reported by DNA
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