Gorhe-Narvekar case gets a new public prosecutor

Sena leader Neelam Gorhe and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s personal assistant Milind Narvekar during a court appearance. (File photo)

OVER A month after suddenly cancelling the appointment of the special public prosecutor in criminal case against Shiv Sena leaders Neelam Gorhe and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s personal assistant Milind Narvekar, without giving any reasons, the government has appointed a new public prosecutor in the case. Both are accused of engineering and instigating riots during a bandh in Pune in December 2010.

In the first week of September this year, less than a year after a failed attempt to withdraw the criminal case against the duo, the state government, had communicated to the then Special Public Prosecutor in the case, Prakash Suryavanshi, that his services were discontinued. The state government this week appointed Advocate AK Pacharne, as the public prosecutor in the case. The Indian Express had recently reported that before the cancellation of the appointment of Suryavanshi, the defence lawyer had filed an application in the court to discharge the case against the two. When contacted, Pacharne confirmed that he has been appointed as the public prosecutor in the case. “On the next date of the hearing, I will be filing the say on the discharge application by the defence. We will oppose the application.”

In 2010-11, at the time of the incident and the registration of the case, a Congress-NCP-led alliance was in power in the state. The Pune Police had tapped a conversation between the two on December 27, 2010 and released the details of the conversation two days later.