More activists could be raided in the coming days, say Pune police

Human rights activist Gautam Navlakha displays a report by two rights groups during a press conference in Srinagar. (

AP file photo)

Poet and activist Varara Rao (C) gestures as he is escorted by policemen after being arrested in Hyderabad on August 28, 2018. (AFP Photo)

Poet and activist Varara Rao (C) gestures as he is escorted by policemen after being arrested in Hyderabad on August 28, 2018. (AFP Photo)

Activist Arun Ferreira (R) is arrested by policemen from his residence in Thane district on August 28, 2018. (AFP Photo)

(Inputs from Hyderabad, Mumbai, Thane, Raipur & Ranchi)

PUNE: Police arrested five activists, who they claimed had links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), during simultaneous raids on Tuesday which started early in the morning in Mumbai, Thane, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Delhi and Faridabad.The raids and arrests were in connection with the Elgar Parishad , a public meeting, held in Pune on December 31, 2017, a day before the violence at Koregaon Bhima , 60km from Pune.The five arrested are civil rights activist and revolutionary writer P Varavara Rao (Hyderabad), lawyer Vernon Gonsalves (Mumbai), human rights activist-lawyer Arun Ferreira (Thane), activist-lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj (Faridabad) and human rights activist Gautam Navlakha (Delhi).The police also questioned octogenarian activist and priest Stan Swamy during a raid on his house in Ranchi. Another police team went to an institute in Goa to question academician/writer Anand Teltumbde. However, Teltumbde was not at the institute.After Pune police arrested five activists with alleged Maoist links on Tuesday, Pune’s joint CP Shivaji Bodkhe said, “We have made these arrests on the basis of incriminating evidence collected during our investigations and the documents recovered from the five activists arrested on June 6. The names of those arrested today figure in these documents.”On June 7, the state prosecution had told a Pune court while securing remand of the five activists arrested then that the probe had revealed a Maoist plot to execute a “Rajiv Gandhi-type” incident. Police had claimed those five activists were linked with Maoists.Bodkhe refused to go into specifics of Tuesday’s arrests. Police are investigating the alleged involvement of the CPI (Maoist) in the organising and funding of Elgar Parishad during which provocative speeches allegedly made are perceived to have contributed to the Koregaon Bhima violence.The Parishad was organised to commemorate the contribution of Dalits in the battle of Koregaon Bhima fought on January 1, 1818 between the British and Peshwa troops.The organisers included left-leaning group Kabir Kala Manch and Mumbai-based cultural outfit Republican Panther.The next day, on January 1, 2018, one person was killed and several vehicles and properties were damaged in the rioting, arson and stone-pelting at Koregaon Bhima and adjoining villages during clashes between right-wingers and Dalit groups commemorating the battle’s bicentenary.Rao, Gonsalves and Ferreira were being brought to Pune where they will be produced before a court on Wednesday.The Delhi HC ordered Navlakha to be kept under house arrest and not be taken to Maharashtra.The Punjab and Haryana HC stayed Bharadwaj’s transit remand for three days.Two FIRs were lodged with Vishrambaug police on January 4 and 8 this year against Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, student leader Umar Khalid and others, including KKM members, for alleged inflammatory statements and provocative speeches during the Parishad. The police claim the Parishad set the tone for next day’s violence.Police widened the scope of their probe when they said they found some KKM members to be in touch with CPI (Maoist) members for a couple of months prior to the Parishad.This led to the June 6 raids and arrests of Sudhir Dhawale, Dalit activist and editor of Marathi magazine ‘Vidrohi’ from Mumbai, lawyer Surendra Gadling, Nagpur University English professor Shoma Sena, former PMRD fellow Mahesh Raut (all from Nagpur) and Rona Wilson, aide of convicted Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, from Delhi.All five are in judicial custody at Yerawada jail. A senior Pune police officer said, “The possibility of similar raids on other activists in the coming days cannot be ruled out. All those arrested today are key members of some of the frontal organisations of a banned outfit. They have a role in funding and organising the Elgar Parishad and for provocation.”Revolutionary writer, poet and critic Varavara Rao (78), arrested in Hyderabad, has been a thorn in the flesh of successive governments in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Jailed many times, including during the Emergency, he was acquitted in several cases. He has been active on the human rights front.Police picked up Ferreira 50) from his house in Thane. ACP Pawar said he was arrested on the basis of “solid evidences.” In Andheri, police held lawyer-activist Vernon Gonsalves (62) after raiding his house.Civil rights activist Sudha Bharadwaj (56) has a nearly 30-year association with Chhattisgarh where she has been working to protect forest rights and rights of labourers and tribals caught in the conflict between security forces and Maoists.Interestingly, she was part of a fact-finding team set up by the National Human Rights Commission in 2013 to probe the alleged massacre of seven villagers by Salwa Judum in Sukma’s Kondasawali village in 2007.An IIT-Kanpur alumnus who also has a law degree, Bharadwaj became an activist of Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), an organisation founded by legendary labour union leader Shankar Guha Niyogi.Police raided the house of prominent social activist, Fr Stan Swamy, in the Namkum locality of Ranchi and searched the premises for four hours.While Fr Swamy was not arrested, the police seized laptops, mobile phones, documents and several CDs during the raid.In Goa, a five-member police team searched Teltumbde’s room at the prestigious Goa Institute of Management at Sakhali, nearly 30km from Panaji. Sources said Teltumbde, a senior assistant professor at the institute, had left the campus on Monday.He is considered one of the best interpreters of Ambedkar and a Dalit thinker who strode the corporate world as the MD and CEO of Petronet India Ltd. Sources said the Pune police did not attach any of his belongings.Pune assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Shivaji Pawar told TOI that the search was conducted in connection with a case registered against Teltumbde in Pune. Teltumbde said, “Everything is in the public domain.There is nothing secretive about it. The articles with my views on Koregaon Bhima are available online. It is just that I have been critical over the incident and certain things. All others (those arrested today) also have an impeccable reputation. They are scholars in their own right.”The BJP said there should no politics over an issue which concerns the PM’s security. The party said those questioning probe agencies were “doing a huge disservice to the nation.”