Pune police on Tuesday conducted searches in various cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa, Haryana and Chhatisgarh in connection with the recent arrests of five persons allegedly linked with Maoists activities.

The searches are being conducted at the residences of the persons having Maoists links and who were directly or indirectly connected with the organizers of 'Elgaar Parishad', said sources.

According to the sources in Pune police, the police have arrested left-wing activist and poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad. They are being produced in a local court in respective cities and will be brought to Pune after getting transit remand.

Meanwhile, searches are being conducted at the residences Vernon Gonsalves who was arrested under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in 2007, activist Arun Ferreira in Mumbai and human rights activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi and other persons in other parts of the country.

Varavara Rao's name was mentioned in one of the letters allegedly written by fugitive Maoist Milind Teltumbde which was seized from Rona Wilson who was arrested from Delhi along with Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut and Shoma Sen earlier in June this year in connection of Elgaar Parishad held in Pune on December 31, 2017.

According to police, today's searches are in connection with the earlier arrests. "While investigating the case pertaining to Elgaar Parishad, the names of some persons were cropped up. While probing further, we have found that they are closely associated with the banned organisation CPI (Maoist). Their activities such has conspiring and participating in movements with an intention of creating violence clearly falls under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and therefore, the searches are being conducted at various places," senior police officer of Pune police told DNA on the condition of anonymity.

Pune police had claimed that they had seized 25,000 GB data from the five arrested persons and they are currently going through the each and every detail of that data. "While scrutinizing the data, the names of the persons surfaced who were closely associated with the arrested persons and they are active in Maoists activities in various parts of the country. Since very strong links have been found of the arrested persons with the other persons, the searches are being conducted at their residences," the officer said.