A special court in Pune on Sunday granted an extension of 90 days to the police to file a chargesheet against five persons with alleged Maoist links who were 5 arrested in June this year in connection with the Elgaar Parishad held in Pune and the subsequent January 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon caste riots.
A day after the Pune police moved the court seeking an extension for filing a charge-sheet citing fresh arrests in the Bhima-Koregaon case, Special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) court Judge KD Vadhane gave further 90 days' time to the police to file a charge-sheet against the five persons arrested earlier in the case.
Five Maoist-linked Human Rights activists Rona Wilson Jacob, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Prof Shoma Sen and Mahesh Raut were arrested by the Pune police on June 6, in connection with the Elgaar Parishad and subsequent Bhima-Koregaon caste riots.
Subsequently on June 8, the investigators had claimed that they had recovered from the tap top of Wilson an allegedly incriminating letter, which uncovered an alleged plot by the Maoists to carry out “Rajiv Gandhi-type” assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On August 28, the Pune police arrested five more activists Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Pereira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha 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.
However, the Supreme Court ordered that the five arrested activists be placed under house arrest till September 6.
"The period of their judicial custody of 90 days is coming to an end on September 3. With the fresh five arrests in the case, the investigation of the crime is in the progress and sought extension of 90 days for filing charge sheet,” Pune’s Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Shivaji Pawar said.
“Under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which is invoked in the case, if the investigation is not completed within 90 days, the period can be extended up to 180 days,” ACP Pawar said.
The section 43D of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 which deals with modified application of certain provisions of the Code, provides for “if it is not possible to complete the investigation within the said period of ninety days, the Court may if it is satisfied with the report of the Public Prosecutor indicating the progress of the investigation and the specific reasons for the detention of the accused beyond the said period of ninety days, extend the said period up to one hundred and eighty days”.
On his part, defence lawyer sought more time for filing their reply. The court, however, declined the request and told the defence team that it was free to move the upper court against its order.
Defence lawyer Rahul Deshmukh said that owing to lack of preparation, he could not make any argument in the court on Sunday. "No argument was done from our side as the notice was served yesterday and we couldn't get time for preparation," Deshmukh said.
Another defence lawyer Adv Rohan Nahar confirmed that his team intended to move to the Bombay High Court against the decision on Monday.
The arrests of ten persons with alleged Maoist links made by the Pune police in two batches — five on June 6 and another five on August 28 — were part of their investigations into the FIR registered on January 8 at the Pune’s Vishram Baug Police Station in connection with the Elgar Parishad organised on December 31, 2017 by the leftist outfit Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) and Republican Panthers Party ahead of the January 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots.
The FIR, originally registered u/s 153(A), 505 (1)(b), 117 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), had made out a conspiracy case in March 2018 and relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) were added to the case latter.
Earlier on Friday last, Maharashtra’s Additional Director General of Police (law and Order) Param Bir Singh had on Friday claimed that the Pune police had strong evidence to prove that the five recently arrested activists, including Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj, had links with the outlawed CPI (Maoists).
Singh had said that there was a big conspiracy to “overthrow the lawfully established” Indian government using arms procured from countries like China and Russia and the five arrested accused were helping the outlawed CPI (Maoists) to take “their goal forward”.
Defending the fresh arrests of five activists with alleged Maoist links on August 28, Pune’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shirish Sardeshpande had said on August 29: “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.. 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.
Alluding to the the arrests made on June 6 and 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 had said: “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”.
The letter written by “R” (recovered from recovered from the laptop of Human Rights activists Rona Wilson Jacob on April 17) which the investigators suspect might be Rona himself and addressed to one comrade Prakash, states: “We are thinking along the lines of another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident. It sounds suicidal and there is a good chance we might fail but we feel the party must deliberate over our proposal. Targeting his road shows could be an effective strategy. We collectively believe that survival of the party is supreme to all sacrifices”.
The letter also talks about the requirement of Rs 8 crore to procure M-4 rifles as an annual supply and four lakh rounds of ammunition.
It may be recalled that on January 1, one Rahul Phatangale (28), a Dalit, was killed and another 40-odd vehicles and some other property were damaged after some miscreants attacked Dalits celebrating the January 1, 1818 victory of British troops over Peshwa Bajirao II's army at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district of western Maharashtra. Following the incident, Maharashtra had witnessed large-scale Dalit protests which turned violent at some places.