india

Updated: Nov 07, 2019 05:08 IST

A special court in Pune on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of six accused in the Elgar Parishad case. Passing an order to this effect, Additional Sessions Judge SR Navandar said the evidence on hand suggests the active involvement of the accused in furthering the cause of a banned entity, in this case, the CPI (Maoist). A copy of the order wasn’t immediately available.

Nine people were arrested by Pune police last yearfor alleged links with the CPI (Maoist). The police say the banned outfit supported the meeting of the Elgar Parishad in December 2017. Speeches delivered at the meeting, the police claim, were responsible for the violence in Koregaon Bhima in January 2018 when Dalits clashed with Marathas.

Of the nine accused in the case, Shoma Sen, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Vara Vara Rao, Veron Gonsalves, Arun Ferriera and Sudha Bharadwaj, six argued their case in front of Judge Navandar. Three others, Gonsalves, Ferriera and Bharadwaj, approached the Bombay HC for bail. However, their plea was rejected on October 15.

On January 1, 2018, violence broke out in Maharashtra’s Bhima Koregaon village in Pune district, where Dalit people had gathered to celebrate the bicentenary of victory in a British-era war. The clashes left one man dead and around 40 injured. Police say Maoist elements hatched the conspiracy for the violence at an event on December 31, 2017 in Pune, called the Elgar Parishad.