The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered an FIR in the Bhima-Koregaon case and charged 11 people, including nine currently in jail, under provisions of the anti-terror law UAPA and the IPC, days after it was handed over the matter in Maharashtra by the Centre.

While the Pune Police had applied IPC Section 124A (sedition) in the case during the investigation, the NIA FIR does not have this charge, said advocate Siddharth Patil, representing some of the accused.

Violence erupted in the vicinity of a war memorial in Koregaon Bhima on 1 January 2018, allegedly after provocative speeches were made at the Elgar Parishad conclave a day earlier in Pune’s Shaniwar Wada locality.

The Pune Police claimed the conclave was backed by outlawed Maoist groups and arrested activists Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao for their alleged links with Naxals.