A move by the Pune police to question senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh in connection with the investigations into the activities of the banned CPI (Maoist) took a political turn on Monday with the ruling BJP making an issue in the campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls and daring the Congress leadership to expel Singh from the party for his alleged Maoist links.
After news reports emanated from Pune that the local police planned to question Singh over the finding that his mobile number was mentioned in one of the letters claimed to have been seized from the arrested Maoist sympathisers, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra targeted the senior Congress leader for his alleged Maoist links.
Talking to media persons at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Patra alluded to the reported recovery of a letter allegedly linking Singh to the CPI (Maoist) and charged that the senior Congress had links with the outlawed Maoists. He dared Congress president Rahul Gandhi to expel Singh from the party.
“Now that it has become clear that Digvijay Singh has links with the Maoists. The matter is serious and it involves national security. I would like to know if Rahul Gandhi would expel the senior Congress from the party or decorate him as a revolutionary,” Patra asked.
Meanwhile, Pune’s Joint Police Commissioner Shivajirao Bodkhe confirmed that the team investigating the Bhima-Koregaon riots, which has so far arrested ten human rights activists from various parts of the country for their alleged links with Maoists, might question the senior Congress leader for his links with the arrested activists. “We may call him for questioning, but we have not fixed any time-frame for it,” Bodkhe said.
The investigations by the Pune police have revealed that in a letter written on September 25, 2017, one ‘Com Prakash’ purportedly tells one ‘Com Surendra’ that Congress leaders were “very much willing to assist” in their efforts to “intensify nationwide protests using students”. The letter allegedly mentions a mobile number that ‘Com Surendra’ can contact “in this regard”. This is reportedly Singh’s mobile number.
‘Com Surendra’, according to the investigators, is a reference to Surendra Gadling, a Nagpur-based lawyer who was arrested on June 6. ‘Com Prakash’ is said to be one of the top CPI(Maoist) commanders.
The purported letter, in which there is alleged reference to the senior Congress leader, became public after the Pune police submitted it in court as evidence of the links between the arrested activists and the top Maoist brass
Singh had earlier dared the Centre and statement to arrest him. Singh was earlier quoted as saying: “If I am guilty, I challenge the Centre and the State Government to arrest me”.
On their part, the Pune police claim that they have ascertained the mobile number mentioned in the incriminating letter was that of Singh.
It may be recalled that five Maoist-linked activists 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 laptop 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.
In a charge-sheet filed in a Pune special court on November 15 against 10 persons, including five activists arrested for their alleged Maoist links, the investigators had said that accused number two Rona J. Wilson had colluded with Shoma Sena and Prashanto Bose, secretary of the outlawed CPI (Maoist)’s Eastern Regional Bureau, along with other underground activists hatched a conspiracy to kill the Prime Minister of India. “All the five (arrested) arrested accused were part of the conspiracy to wage a war against the nation with illegal bombs and arms to topple the government with violent means,” the charge-sheet said.
The Pune police are likely to file second charge-sheet in the case against five more activists, including Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj, who were arrested on August 28 in the same case, in the coming weeks.
In all 22 persons have been arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon riots and alleged links with Maoists. They include five "underground" Maoist functionaries who have been described as "absconding accused" in the first charge-sheet filed by the police against ten accused before a Special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) Court in Pune on Thursday last.
The ten accused named in the first charge-sheet in the Bhima-Koregaon case have charged under various relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 117 ( abetting commission of offence), 120-b ( conspiracy) read with 34 (common intention), 121, 121 (A) (Waging or attempting to wage a war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India) 124A (sedition), 153 –A (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot..) and 505 1b (statements conducing public mischief) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).