According to sources, the Pune police have arrested Rona Wilson from Delhi, Adv Surendra Gadling and Prof Shoma Sen from Nagpur and Sudhir Dhavle from Mumbai.
The Pune city police have arrested suspected members of the banned Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist) regarding the Elgaar Parishad held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31. The event, police said, allegedly led to the violence on January 1, during the 200th year celebrations of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.
The arrested, who police claim are “top urban Maoist operatives”, include an Elgaar Parishad organiser Sudhir Dhawale, leader of Republican Panthers Jati Antachi Chalwal, Delhi-based Rona Wilson of Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) and Nagpur-based lawyer Surendra Gadling of Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL).
The police had earlier arrested Hindu Ekata Aghadi founder Milind Ekbote in the case and had also interrogated activists of Kabir Kala Manch, which is alleged as a front organization of urban Maoists. However, today’s arrests were made after sensing a possibility of having a direct connection between the Bhima-Koregan riots and the arrested persons, police sources have said.
The Four accused.
Surendra Gadling: Based in Nagpur, Gadling, a lawyer, is the general secretary of Indian Association of People’s Lawyers. Known to be a tribal and Dalit rights activist, he has been providing legal aid to those arrested for Maoist links, including Saibaba and Dhawale. He had provided legal help to Kabir Kala Manch artists who had been questioned by Nagpur police in September 2013 on allegations of carrying banned literature.
Sudhir Dhawale: A Dalit activist and editor of Marathi magazine ‘Vidrohi’, Dhawale founded the Republican Panthers Jati Antachi Chalwal to provide a common political platform for Dalits. He also launched a movement called Radical Ambedkar. He was previously arrested in January 2011 on charges of sedition for his alleged Maoist links. However, he was acquitted of all charges by a Gondia court in May 2014. Dhawale was active in organising the Elgaar Parishad in Mumbai. He was also arrested from Wardha railway station by a team of Gondia police and a team from the Nagpur division of ATS, while trying to board a train to Mumbai. He was taken to Gondia and produced before a local court which awarded police his custody until 12 January 2011. Subsequently he was booked for waging war against the state under section 121 of the Indian Penal Code and charged with sedition (Sec 124) and booked under Sections 17, 20 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). This put Dhawale at the center of a human rights controversy.
His arrest was controversial due to:
• Alleged illegal entry and search of his Mumbai apartment was carried out when his wife was away at work and only his two children, aged 10 and 15, were at home.
• The seizure and inventorying of seized articles was allegedly done in the absence of credible independent witnesses and his wife was made to sign the list under duress.
Mahesh Raut: Mahesh is a former Prime Minister Rural Development (PMRD) Fellow. He is alleged to be the link between jungle operatives and urban outfits of the Maoists. He has been active in the Maoist affected Gadchiroli district for last few years. In April 2014, when Raut was a PMRD fellow, he was detained by the Gadhchiroli police with his aide Harshali Potdar, after two Maoists arrested from Koinvarshi village revealed that the duo was supposed to accompany them to meet senior Maoist leaders in jungles. But Raut and Potdar were not arrested by the police and were released after questioning. Raut had recently shifted to Nagpur.
Shoma Sena: Nagpur-based activist Shoma Sen is a professor for English subject at the Nagpur University. She has been under the police scanner of investigating agencies for her alleged links with the left-wing extremists. She was present for the Elgaar Parishad in Pune. Her husband Tusharkanti Bhattacharya was arrested last in August year by the Gujarat police regarding a 2010 case related to Maoist activities but was later released on bail.