Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here on Friday that the Supreme Court’s verdict on the arrests made in the Bhima-Koregaon riots case had vindicated the stand taken by the Maharashtra Government and the Pune police that that the investigators had ample evidence against the arrested activists for their alleged links with Maoists.
Welcoming the apex court verdict refusing to interfere with investigations by the Pune police and declining to transfer the case to the a Special Investigation Team (SIT), the Chief Minister said: “The verdict by the Supreme Court vindicates our stand against the urban Maoists. Definitely a conspiracy against the nation has been unearthed by the police. The apex court has pointed out that it was not a political conspiracy behind the arrests (of activists with Maoist links).
“The Supreme Court has also appreciated that the State Government or the Government of the day is not trying to curb dissent of voice, The apex court also says that the material evidence in the case shows that there is no mala fide action on the part of the Pune police,” Fadnavis said.
Talking specifically about the evidence mustered by the Pune police in the urban Maoists arrests case, the Chief Minister said: “We have all the material evidence to show that these people (arrested activists with alleged Maoist links) were conspiring against the nation that these people were also trying to vitiate relations between the communities. ... They have been colluding with the organisations of the enemy nations.”
Fadnavis said that the apex court had said that there appeared to be a clear nexus between the “these people and banned orgnisations.
“These people had been plotting to assassinate the Prime Minister in collusion with the enemies of the nation. That’s why the police have taken this action (of arresting activists with Maoist links). They have enough material to convict them. As directed by the Supreme Court, we will put all the evidence against these people before the appropriate court which will grant us custody. Even otherwise, we have sufficient evidence to convict them”.
Justifying the decision of the Pune and Maharashtra police to address press conferences brief the brief the media about the arrests,” the Chief Minister said: "A lot of things were said against the police after the arrest and an atmosphere was created by pseudo, so-called neo-liberals in the media that the arrests have been made without evidence. The police had to say that the arrests were not motivated but backed by real and powerful evidence",
"We will look into the fine print of the order regarding the police press conference. The press conference is not important but the real issue of conspiracy against the nation is. If holding the press conference was wrong, we will improve it," Fadnavis said.
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.
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 at a news conference held on August 29 that the seized documents had revealed that the outlawed CPI (Maoist) had hatched a conspiracy to overthrow the Government established by the law..
“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,” Sardeshpande had said, alluding to a conspiracy uncovered by the Pune police to assassinate Prime Minister Modi.
Subsequently on August 31, Maharashtra’s Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh had at a news conference 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”.
Subsequently on September 3, the Bombay High Court had pulled them up for holding media briefings to give information relating to the arrested activists with alleged Maoist links, at time when “when the matter is sub judice”.
“How can the police do this? The matter is sub judice. The Supreme Court is seized of the matter. In such cases, revealing information pertaining to the case is wrong,” Justice Mridula Bhatkar of the two-member HC bench had observed.