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Journalism of Courage
THE prosecution on Tuesday concluded its arguments against the bail application of five of the accused arrested for alleged Maoist links, reiterating that they not only arranged finances for the activities of the banned outfit but also facilitated recruitment of youths from education institutions into the ‘Maoist cadre’.
The prosecution also argued that these accused should not be granted interim bail as the proceedings of their regular bail were coming to an end. The arrests of these accused, who are prominent lawyers and activists, were made by the Pune police during their ongoing probe into alleged Maoist links to Elgaar Parishad held in Pune on December 31 last year.
District Government Pleader Ujjawala Pawar on Tuesday concluded her argument against the bail application of Surendra Gadling and Shoma Sen, arrested in June, and Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, arrested in August. While Gadling and Sen are currently lodged in the Yerawada jail, the other three are under house arrest.
During the proceedings on Tuesday, Gadling, who is arguing for his bail in person, and the other defence lawyers present said that they were abstaining from arguing in the court in support of the protest staged by the Pune Bar Association condemning the attack on lawyer Devanand Dhokne on Monday. Pawar, however, concluded her argument challenging the bail application.
On Wednesday, the defence lawyers are expected to present their counter-points on the prosecution’s arguments. District judge K D Vadane is hearing the case.
Pawar, in her argument, said, “We have already submitted to the court various documents showing the involvement of some of these accused in raising funds for the underground activities of the banned outfit. They have played a role in facilitating recruitment of students from various educational institutes like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) into the ‘Maoist cadre’. The Indian Association of Peopl’s Lawyer, for which Bharadwaj and Gadling worked, was a front organisation for the CPI (Maoist) and some of its members worked as courier for communication between Central Committee members of the CPI (Maoist) and others.”
She also countered the plea by the defence seeking interim bail for the accused. “Interim bail can be granted when the application for regular bail application is pending. But in this case, the proceedings on the regular bail are almost over, thus there is no question of granting interim relief. The prosecution pleads that bail application of all the persons be rejected,” Pawar argued.
On Monday, the prosecution had submitted two email communications from July 2018, allegedly between Vara Vara Rao, another accused, and Ganapathy alias Chandrashekhar, general secretary of the banned CPI-Maoist, in which the Maoist leader purportedly expressed concern about the seizure of confidential letters by police.
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