Pune police on activists' arrest: Have evidence about a plan to target 'highest political functionaries'

A day after five human rights activists were arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, the Pune police on Wednesday said they had links with Kashmiri separatists.

Arun Ferreira, a human rights activist and lawyer, after he was arrested by the Pune police in connection with Bhima Koregaon violence case, in Mumbai on Tuesday

NEW DELHI: A day after five human rights activists were arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, the Pune police on Wednesday said they had links with Kashmiri separatists. The police said some of the evidence collected in the case suggests that there was a plan to target highest political functionaries and that those arrested have shown a strong intolerance to the political system. Meanwhile, In a huge relief to the activists, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that they should be kept under house arrest until the next date of hearing on September 6. Taking a dim view of the raids, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said: "Dissent is a safety valve of democracy. If it is not allowed, the pressure cooker will burst." Searches were carried out on Tuesday at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in New Delhi, following which the five activists were arrested. The Pune police have also submitted a report to the Home Ministry in connection with the raids and arrests of activists, sources said. "Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves, two of the five arrested on August 28, 2018, have been arrested earlier also by the Maharashtra Police in 2007 and spent several years in prison. Similarly, Varavara Rao has been arrested several times by the Andhra/Telangana Police in the past," the report said. The police told the ministry that the UPA government had, in Dec 2012, identified 128 organizations with linkages to the banned CPI (Maoists) and written to all the States asking them to take action against people involved with these organizations. "Seven of those (Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mahesh Raut) arrested belong to organizations appearing in this list," it said. The report said that the Maharashtra police is investigating the alleged links of these activists with the CPI (Maoist). "What is under investigation in the instant case are the linkages of these individuals with the CPI(Maoist), a banned organization operating with the devious objective of overthrow of the democratic order and the support provided by them to the CPI(Maoist). Such individuals cannot escape responsibility for aiding and abetting the violent acts committed by CPI(Maoist)’s underground cadres," it said.