india

Updated: Sep 10, 2019 17:33 IST

The Pune police on Tuesday searched the Noida residence of a Delhi University professor in connection with the ongoing probe into the Elgar Parishad case.

The police seized electronic devices form the house of Professor Hany Babu M T (45) but did not arrest him, Bachchan Singh, Pune’s deputy commissioner of police (crime) said in a statement.

“This search was conducted with respect to an offence registered at Vishrambaug police station, Pune City related to Elgar Parishad under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967,” read a statement from DCP Singh.

The video of the entire search was recorded and the panchnama was provided to him. The legal representatives of Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer and an activist who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad case from her Faridabad house last year, had raised questions against the police procedure during her arrest.

The other non-Marathi speaking activists had also alleged that the police had not provided the English version of panchnamas.

The Pune police team which conducted the search included DCP Singh, assistant commissioner police Shivaji Pawar, who is investigating the case, and a cyber expert among others.

The Pune police claim that the Elgar Parishad, a one-day conference held in Shaniwar Wada in the city on December 31, 2017, was organised with the help of Maoists a day ahead of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. Several speakers at the event, including Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani, had criticized the BJP-led central government in their speeches for what they called its anti-Dalit policies.

Next day, violence erupted as lakhs of people, mainly Dalits, marched from Pune to the village of Koregaon Bhima to mark the anniversary of the battle between Marathas and the British. One person died and several others were injured in the clashes.

Last year, the police arrested nine prominent activists and lawyers - Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Gadling, Rona Wilson, P Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferriera and Vernon Gonsalves – in connection with the case.

The nine who are lodged in Yerawada central jail in Pune have been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.