Bhima Koregaon arrests: Sudha Bharadwaj says letter alleging Maoist links was concocted, police didn't present it in court

Sudha Bharadwaj, one of the five activists arrested in multi-city raids by the Maharashtra Police, has outrightly rejected the claims made by the investigating agency and said a purported letter implicating her was “totally concocted” to criminalise her and human rights organisations. [caption id=“attachment_5067081” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sudha Bharadwaj. PTI[/caption] The police had Friday claimed that Bharadwaj had written to one “Com Prakash”. Reacting to this in a handwritten statement, Bharadwaj, who is under house arrest, Friday said the purported letter shown by the Pune Police is a “mixture of innocuous and publicly available facts.” She claimed a number of human rights lawyers, activists and organisations were deliberately named to cast a stigma over them, obstruct their work and incite hatred against them. “It is a totally concocted letter fabricated to criminalise me and other human rights lawyers, activists and organisations,” the letter said. The activist-lawyer said the “fabricated letter” had not been brought either before the Pune court or the Faridabad chief judicial magistrate while seeking to “whisk” her to Pune. In her statement, Bharadwaj also said that she does not know any “Ankit from Maharashtra,” who is in touch with Kashmiri separatists. One of her letters presented by the police said, “Comrade Gautam (Navalakha) and Comrade Ankit are in touch with separatists in Jammu and Kashmir.” She, however, said that she does know Navlakha, “a senior and respected human rights activist whose name has been mentioned in a manner to criminalise and incite hatred against him.” In a media briefing Friday, the police had released details of seized letters related to five activists arrested in June, and in a second crackdown on Tuesday in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence that took place in January. Early this week, the police raided the homes of activists and lawyers from five states – Varavara Roa in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi. With inputs from PTI