A day after the arrest of Varavara Rao and four other human rights activists for their alleged Maoist links, the Pune police said the five arrested activists were part of a "larger conspiracy" hatched by the banned CPI (Maoist) to “overthrow” the Government and “target” the country’s highest political functionary.
Talking to media persons on Wednesday, Pune’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shirish Sardeshpande said apart from arresting five activists having alleged links with the banned organisation CPI (Maoist) the investigators had on Tuesday seized hard disks, laptops, pen drives, memory cards, mobile phones, SIM cards and incriminating documents from nine places that were searched in Mumbai, Thane, Faridabad, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Ranchi on Tuesday.
“The analysis of the seized documents from electronic devices clearly reveals the conspiracy hatched by the CPI (Maoist)to form an all India united front (as per strategy of the banned organisation) i.e anti-facist front (according to resolutions passed by the Eastern Regional Bureau which is an underground formation) in order to overthrow the Government established by the law,” Sardeshpande said, while reading out a statement in English and Marathi.
“In pursuance of this conspiracy, efforts were made to establish such a front in Maharashtra through the Elgaar Parishad organised on December 31, 2017,” the statement said.
Varavara Rao and four other human rights activists --Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Pereira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha – were arrested on Tuesday by the Pune police for their association with the Elgaar Parishad held in Pune ahead of the January 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots and their alleged links with the Maoists.
“The evidence collectively points to the deliberate involvement and major role played by Varavara Rao, Arun Periera, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha in the larger conspiracy hatched by the banned organisation CPI (Maoist),” the statement issued by the Pune police said.
“The evidence also involves other details like provision of funds, responsibilities given to the urban naxals in radicalising the youth and students, provision of arms and other details trailing back from the comrades of Central Committee of CPI (Maoist). Also they are actively and deliberately involved in the unlawful activities which lead to the violence and killings of large number of security personnel and innocent civilians,” Sardeshpande said.
Alluding to the claim made by the Pune police on June 8 that they had uncovered a plot by the Maoists to carry out “Rajiv Gandhi-type” assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sardeshpande read: “Some of the evidence collected reveals that there appears to be nexus with the other unlawful organisations which spread violence. They have shown intolerance to the present political system and decided to target organisations, functionaries and they even were thinking of targeting the highest political functionary”.
Following up on their April 17 raids on the premises of Dalits and others associated with the Elgaar Parishad and the arrest of four Dalit activists and a Nagpur University professor with alleged Maoist links on June 6, the Pune police teams carried out simultaneous searches in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Goa, Hyderabad, Faridabad, New Delhi and Ranchi and arrested five activists having alleged links with banned CPI (Maoist).
According to the Pune police, the arrests are linked to the conspiracy involving the Elgaar Parishad held in Pune on December 31, 2017 and the subsequent Bhima-Koregaon caste riots that that the investigators are looking into.
On June 8, the Pune police had claimed that they had uncovered a plot to carry out “Rajiv Gandhi-type” assassination of PM Narendra Modi. The investigators had made the claim on the basis of a purported letter that they had produced while seeking the custody of five “Maoist-linked” activists for their role in Bhima-Koregaon riots, that spoke about a plan of “targeting his (Modi’s) road shows as an “effective strategy” to eliminate the Prime Minister.