On March 11th, the government of Maharashtra appointed the 1998 batch IPS officer, Mr. Sandeep Karnik, as the head of the special investigation team (SIT) to take stock of the Maratha quota violence.
Mr Karnik is currently serving as the Commissioner of police of Nashik City and has been mandated by the state home department to head the SIT, which shall conduct an in-depth inquiry into the violence that erupted during the Maratha quota protests a few months ago.
The conundrum had unfolded in October 2023, when houses of two MLAs and other properties were ransacked and torched by fuming protestors.
The collector of Dharashiv district, Dr. Sachin Ombase (2015 batch IAS), views the ongoing Maratha community agitation for reservation in education and government jobs ahead of the LS polls with scepticism and has expressed concern about the likeliness of overcrowding by candidates during elections, which would pose challenges for electronic voting machines (EVMs).
