The Kerala Police is finding it difficult to explain the exact grounds on which they had arrested Jonathan Baud, a 24-year-old Swiss national, in the name of attending a meeting organised by Maoist sympathisers as they have not been able to find any solid evidence for his connections with Maoists even after hectic efforts.
Top police officials are now worried that if they fail in proving their case against Baud in the absence of strong evidences for his Maoist links it can have a negative impact on the anti-Maoist operations the force has been carrying out since February, 2013 and that the Maoists will have the last laugh in such a situation.
The Kerala High Court, which is scheduled to take up Jonathan’s bail plea on Friday, has asked the Government for explanation in the matter. Sources in the police are now admitting that they have not been able to collect any solid evidence to prove that Baud has Maoist links and that he had been in contact with leaders or workers of underground outfits.
The police had arrested Baud, who claims to be a researcher with the University of Geneva, on the night of July 28 under the Foreigners’ Act on the charge of violating visa regulations by taking part in a programme of a banned outfit. However, legal experts point out that this argument is unsustainable for various reasons.
“In the first place, the Swiss man had not participated in any programme of any outlawed organization. Secondly, the police cannot say that he must not attend any programme just because he is on a tourist visa. At the moment, the police don’t have a valid argument to present,” said a senior lawyer.
Interestingly, Jonathan has submitted that he has no links with any underground organization and has produced letters from four professors of the Geneva University certifying that he is a bright student and a testimonial from the head of the university to prove that he has never had any criminal background.
Jonathan was arrested by the Valappad police in Thrissur district from Thriprayar on the night of July 28 after he attended the meeting, organized in memory of Maoist Sinoj who was reportedly killed in the jungles of Andhra Pradesh over a month ago when he was engaged in bomb-making. It is said that Baud had spoken at the meeting but it is not clear what he had said.
Baud, who had been staying at a hotel in Kannur with his French girlfriend Valerie Celine since July 25, had told the police that he was not an invitee to the meeting but had decided to attend the programme after he learned of it from newspapers. He had come to India on July 10 on a tourist visa.
Searches in his room at the Kannur hotel had yielded several papers and Marxist literature which suggested that he was a leftist but lawyers say that these are not enough to establish any charge against him, adding that the situation for the police may worsen once the Switzerland mission in India, which has already seized of the matter, decides to take it up seriously.
“Indeed, there are inconsistencies in what Baud is saying but that doesn’t make him a suspect. It seems that the police have goofed up the matter completely by arresting Baud without doing proper homework in their urgency to prove some point after failing to nab even a single Maoist in the 18-month-long anti-Maoist operations spending crores of rupees,” said a lawyer.
At the same time, leftist intellectuals and human rights organizations have launched a campaign demanding dropping of the charges against him and his immediate release. Support for Baud is also being expressed through posts on Facebook and other social networking sites.