Pune Crime Files: What is Kabir Kala Manch, the cultural group accused of being a Maoist front?

According to the ATS, Shelar was associated with the Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), a cultural group from Pune which is alleged to be a Maoist front. The KKM is named in the list of “active front organisations of” the Communist Party of India (Maoist) submitted in the Lok Sabha in February 2014 by then minister of state for home affairs RPN Singh.

The ATS case

As per police records, the KKM was formed by a Pune activist, Amarnath Chandaliya, after the Gujarat riots in 2002 for promoting unity through cultural and musical programmes.

But in 2008, the police listed the KKM among the outfits with alleged Maoist links. KKM artists protested saying they were not Maoists and that the group operated democratically, without causing violence.

The KKM again came on the police records following the arrest of Angela Sontakke alias Sadhana from Thane by the ATS in April 2011. Along with Angela, the ATS booked 14 others including Santosh Shelar and a few more KKM members from Pune. Angela’s husband Milind Teltumbde (central committee member of the CPI-Maoist, who was gunned down in a police encounter in Gadchiroli in November 2021), was also named as a wanted accused in this case, registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The ATS alleged that Angela operated from Pune as secretary of the Golden Corridor Committee of the CPI-Maoist, which aimed at spreading the Maoist ideology of armed struggle against the government in the urban areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra and recruiting new members from cities.

Meanwhile, KKM founder Chandaliya’s statement was recorded before a magistrate as per section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It stated that during 2005, Chandaliya came in contact with Sudhir Dhawale, editor of Vidrohi magazine (who has been in jail since his arrest in the Elgaar Parishad case in 2018).

Chandaliya stated Dhawale allegedly introduced him to Anuradha Ghandy (top Maoist leader who died in April 2008), Vijay alias Sridhar Shrinivasan (CPI-Maoist central committee member convicted in a UAPA case, who died in 2015) and Sadhana (Angela), who too was booked in Maoism cases in the past.

The ATS alleged that Angela shifted to Pune and she along with Milind indoctrinated the KKM members towards Maoist ideology. Chandaliya claimed to have left the KKM in 2005 and cut contact with alleged Maoists due to differences.

‘Maoist’ camp in Pune

The ATS probe revealed that some KKM members participated in a residential “Maoist” training camp with Milind Teltumbe at a village in Pune, under the guise of a “teachers training programme”.

Following a report in The Indian Express, questions were raised about the camp in the Assembly in 2012. Then home minister RR Patil told the Assembly that a Maoist training camp did take place.

Also, the ATS alleged that two KKM members—Santosh Shelar from Kasewadi slums in Bhavani Peth and Prashant Kamble alias Laptop from Tadiwala Road slum in Pune—were indoctrinated to join the armed Maoist movement in Gadchiroli after they went missing from Pune in 2010.

Shelar, who later went on to become the deputy commander of the Tanda area committee of the CPI-Maoist in Chhattisgarh, is traced now. Kamble is still absconding.

‘Satyagraha’

Six people, including KKM members arrested by the ATS with Angela, were later granted bail by the Bombay High Court. The bail order dated January 31, 2013, stated that suspects could be “sympathisers of Maoist philosophy” but “none can be said to be active members of banned the Communist Party of India (Maoist)”

Sheetal Sathe, a wanted accused, and her husband Sachin Mali—both KKM artists—surrendered on April 2, 2013, by staging “satyagraha” outside Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai in the presence Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar and others.

In a few days two more accused KKM artists, Ramesh Gaychor and Sagar Gorkhe, surrendered similarly. All four were arrested by the ATS. The KKM members claimed to be innocent and falsely implicated for singing revolutionary songs against the government.

But the ATS filed a supplementary chargesheet against the four suspects alleging they participated in arms training with about 150 Maoists in jungle areas between November 2011 and April 2012, while they were on the run. The ATS relied on statements of three surrendered Maoists who identified the accused KKM artists as CPI-Maoist operatives.

The Supreme Court granted bail to Angela in 2016 and to Mali, Gorkhe and Gaychor in January 2017. While the case is still pending before the court, Sathe and Mali parted ways with the KKM and formed a cultural group, Navyan, which is active in social circles and agitations. Other KKM members continued to perform “vidrohi shahiri jalsa”, a form of revolutionary music.

Elgaar Parishad

The KKM was among the outfits that organised Elgaar Parishad at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Koregaon Bhima, fought between Peshwas and Britishers on January 1, 1818.

According to the police, the Elgaar Parishad received funds from the CPI-Maoist and that speeches delivered at the conclave along with previous campaigns for the event were among the factors that allegedly led to the violence that took place when a mob attacked a gathering held to commemorate the battle of Koregaon Bhima on January 1, 2018.

KKM artists Gorkhe, Gaychor and Jyoti Jagtap are among the 16 people arrested by the Pune city police and the National Investigation Agency in the Elgaar Parishad case for their alleged association with a banned Maoist group. All three are currently in jail.