Elgar Parishad case: Pune Police file draft charges against 19

According to the draft charges, the accused allegedly conspired “to incite people and create violence and to spread disaffection towards government established by law”. It stated that the accused arranged the Elgar Parishad on December 31, 2017 at Shaniwar Wada, Pune through “frontal” organisation KKM under the head “Bhima Koregaon Shauryadin Prerna Abhiyaan” for “creating communal disharmony, enacted provocative songs, short plays, dance, distributed books and circulated printed Naxal literature to exploit the communal sentiments of Dalits and other classes across the state and provoked them in the name of caste in order to create violence, instability and chaos in district Pune, at various places, including Bhima Koregaon, and in the state of Maharashtra.”

The draft charges also mention that the accused allegedly “conspired to wage a war against the government of India and state government… organised Rs 8 crore for annual supply of M4 (sophisticated weapon) with 4 lakh rounds and others arms, ammunition through designated supplier from Nepal and Manipur and conspired to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the lines of Rajiv Gandhi-type incident during his road shows.”

It also alleged that the accused conspired to carry out activities for CPI (Maoist) like spreading “secessionist and rebellious thoughts” and recruiting cadres. Defence lawyer Siddharth Patil said submission of “draft charge” is a step towards framing of charges.

Meanwhile, prosecution has given cloned copies of data recovered from electronic devices seized from the accused to nine persons arrested so far. Defence lawyers had argued during the last hearing that cloned copies they got from prosecution did not open. But today they admitted before the court that hard discs given to them carried the cloned data. Defence lawyer Rohan Nahar said, “The court has asked us to appoint a cyber expert who will be allowed to verify and examine the data given to us by the prosecution.”