Pune Crime Files: How activities of recently arrested ‘Maoist’, known as ‘Laptop’, resemble that of convicted Naxal Arun Bhelke

As per police and court records, both Bhelke and Kamble allegedly operated with multiple false identities and procured IDs with fake names. Both were allegedly working in urban areas, residing in Khalapur and other places in Maharashtra’s Raigad district. Both allegedly worked closely with top CPI Maoist leader Milind Teltumbde, who was gunned down by the police in Gadchiroli in November 2021. Investigators had also seized a “letter” from Bhelke mentioning “Laptop”.

Arun Bhelke and Kanchan Nanaware

ATS nabbed Bhelke and Kanchan from Pune on September 1, 2014. The police said Bhelke alias Rajan alias Sharman Jadhav alias Anand was previously arrested in a Naxal case in Chandrapur in 2008. Out on bail, he and Kanchan, both from Chandrapur, were allegedly given charge of the Golden Corridor Committee of CPI-Maoist, to spread the banned movement in urban areas like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nashik and Surat, officers said.

As per the ATS chargesheet, Bhelke allegedly introduced himself as “Sanjay Kamble” to some of the youths from the Kashewadi slum in Pune, gave them Maoist literature and planned to take them for “training” in the jungle.

The police said that during their college days, Bhelke and Kanchan were active members of the Chandrapur-based Deshbhakti Yuva Manch (DYM), alleged to be a “front” of the CPI-Maoist. Officers said Bhelke also started a magazine College Katta in Chandrapur, but later he and his aides, including Kanchan, were allegedly indoctrinated by Maoist leaders.

Surrendered Naxals Gopi Madavi and Krushna Dorpate had identified Arun as “Rajan” and Kanchan as “Bhoomi” before the court in Pune and submitted that the couple allegedly worked alongside Milind Teltumbde with armed Maiost cadres in Gadchiroli.

According to the ATS, the couple resided at various places in Mumbai, Raigad, Pune with different names. ATS recovered a PAN card and Aadhaar card with the name Aditya Suresh Patil, bearing Bhelke’s photo. The address on this Aadhaar card was found to be the office of the then corporator from the Govandi area in Mumbai. Besides, ATS had seized a PAN card and a Mumbai hospital patient identity card with the name Sonali Aditya Patil having Kanchan’s photo.

The ATS probe also revealed Bhelke and Kanchan had, before their arrest, allegedly taken different rooms on rent in Khalapur and Karjat in Raigad district, posing as Akash Narayan Bhagat and Shital Akash Bhagat.

Around August 2014, they shifted to Pune and Bhelke took a room and a “pan tapri (kiosk)” on rent at Kanhe Phata in Maval, allegedly under a fake name.

When they were arrested, ATS had seized several documents, handwritten papers and electronic material like laptop, pen drive, DVD, hard disc from the couple. Alleged secret Maoist communications were reportedly retrieved from the seized electronic devices.

Conviction and link to ‘Laptop’

During the trial, special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar had referred to alleged CPI-Maoist party documents like the ‘Strategic and Tactics of Indian Revolution’ and ‘Our Work in Urban Areas’, seized from the accused.

Pawar had told the court that as per the “secret agenda” stated in the strategy documents of CPI Maoist, Bhelke worked as “PR (professional revolutionaries)” of the banned group in urban areas, using fake names and procuring fake identity cards. Pawar cited alleged secret letters as per which Bhelke had allegedly sought money from the Maoist party for Kanchan’s medical needs and mentioned sending cadres for participating in Maoist activities.

Bhelke refuted the allegations. But the court sentenced him to eight years of rigorous imprisonment. He was released in April 2023.

Page 60 of the court’s judgment has an alleged secret letter from Bhelke, stating, “Laptop had a meeting with Sandip” and “Laptop” talking about meeting “DD”. The court observed that the letter was written in “coded language” and if the accused was not an active member of a banned outfit, he had no reasons to communicate in such a manner.

The police suspect that “Laptop” in this letter is possibly Prashant Kamble, who was on the run after the arrest of Teltumbde’s wife Anjela Sontakke in a 2011 case of spreading CPI (Maoist) work in cities.

A police officer said that following Sontakke’s arrest, Bhelke replaced her for “urban work” and after he was nabbed, Kamble is suspected to have moved to Raigad over seven years ago for Maoist activities.

The Indian Express had reported how while on the run for 15 years, Kamble appeared in a short film posted on YouTube on March 10, 2018, which identified him as ‘Sunil Jagtap Sir’, working with children in the tribal areas of Khalapur in Raigad. The police said Kamble procured an Aadhaar card, PAN, voter ID and a passport under the name Sunil Jagtap on a Khalapur address.

Kamble’s visit to protesting farmers in 2021, besides his trips to different states in India and also to Nepal are being probed by ATS.