Elgar Parishad event: Activists held for ‘Maoist links’; CPM calls it attack on democratic rights, demands release

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the police and Central agencies had been targeting Dalit rights activists ever since the Bhima Koregaon violence last year.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: August 28, 2018 08:46 PM IST

4 min read

CPM Congress kicks off today; roadmap for 2019 Lok Sabha polls on agenda

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury lashed out at the police over the arrests. (File)

The CPI(M) politburo on Tuesday protested against the country-wide raids and subsequent arrests of left-wing activists, suspected to have Maoist links, calling it a brazen attack on democratic rights and civil liberties. The CPI(M) demanded the withdrawal of the cases against the activists and their immediate release.

“The polit bureau of CPI(M) strongly protests the raids conducted by police authorities on the homes of various civil rights and human rights activists and Left intellectuals,” a statement said. The polit bureau statement also said false charges had been levelled on the activists.

The raids by Maharashtra Police were carried out as part of a probe into the violence at Bhima Koregaon village, which was triggered by an event called ‘Elgar Parishad’ held in Pune on December 31 last year. According to ANI, five activists have been arrested till now. They are activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha, writer and activist P Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, civil rights lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai. All the activists have been arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

However, the Delhi High Court has directed that Navlakha should not be taken away from Delhi till further orders. The bench said Navlakha would remain at his residence under police guard, claiming that the police was not able to “satisfactorily” explain under what offence the activist had been arrested.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the police and Central agencies had been targeting Dalit rights activists ever since the Bhima Koregaon violence last year. “Ever since the Bhima Koregaon violence against Dalits, the Maharashtra Police along with Central agencies have been targeting Dalit rights activists and lawyers who have been taking up their cases. This is a brazen attack on democratic rights and civil liberties,” he said.

READ | Raids at homes of activists with ‘Maoists links’ across India, several arrested

CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat also called the arrests an attack on democratic rights and demanded the activists’ release. “This is a brazen attack on democratic rights. We are demanding that all the cases against these people be withdrawn and they be released forthwith,” ANI quoted Karat as saying.

The raids come three months after a similar operation on June 6, in which the Pune police had arrested five “urban Maoist operatives” from Delhi, Nagpur and Mumbai. Those arrested at that time included Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen and Delhi-based activist Rona Wilson of the Committee of Release of Political Prisoners.

Others to be arrested in June were Sudhir Dhawale, leader of Mumbai-based Republican Panthers Jati Antachi Chalwal, Nagpur lawyer Surendra Gadling of Indian Association of People’s Lawyers, and Mahesh Raut who had in the past been Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow.

While producing them in court a day after their arrests in June, police had claimed to have seized material that pointed to a plan to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a “Rajiv Gandhi-like manner”.

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