Bhima Koregaon probe: Bombay HC asks Maharashtra Police why it held press conference when matter is subjudice

The Bombay High Court on Monday criticised the Maharashtra Police for holding a press conference on the arrest of five activists, when the matter is subjudice. The move comes after a writ petition was filed on Friday, seeking to restrain the Pune Police from probing the case and demanding an NIA inquiry.

The writ petition was filed by Satish Surgiv Gaikwad, an activist who calls himself a victim of the violence in Bhima-Koregaon on 1 January this year. He moved the high court seeking to restrain the Pune Police from further probing the case and stay the investigations, reported Free Press Journal.

Representational image. PTI

The plea also seeks suspension of ACP Shivaji Pawar, Swargate Division of the Pune city police. Gaikwad had sought directions to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to forthwith take over the probe launched by the local police against several human rights advocates and activists.

"The Pune city cops have concocted another theory by saying that speeches made at Elgar Parishad conclave on 31 December, 2017 incited the mob to cause violence the next day at Bhima Koregaon. The arrests of Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Arun Ferreira and others are against the Constitution of India and natural principles of life and justice," says the petition, filed through advocates Abdul Kader Millwala, Tosif Shaikh and Kumar Kalel, reported Mumbai Mirror.

Meanwhile, the court adjourned the petition for 7 September because copies of the petition were not served to all concerned persons, reported ANI.

Additional Director-General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh in a press conference held last Friday, while giving details of its case, read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists. He said they had "conclusive proof" to link left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a "Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end (Narendra) Modi Raj". Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.

The move by the Maharashtra Police was criticised by retired judges and lawyers. Senior counsel Mihir Desai had expressed shock over the manner in which the state police machinery undertook the press conference. "Reading out documents which are supposed to be part of the evidence against the accused persons is wrong. The police have not given the said documents to the court or the defence lawyers," Desai said.

The Pune Police had on 28 August raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them — Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.

The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune on 31 December last year, which allegedly triggered violence at Bhima Koregaon in the district the next day. The Supreme Court has ordered that the five should be kept under house arrest till 6 September.

In June, the Pune Police had arrested Sudhir Dhawale from Mumbai, activist Rona Wilson from Delhi and lawyer Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen and Adivasi rights activist Mahesh Raut from Nagpur.