Bhima Koregaon Case: 4 Activists, CPI(M) Leader Charge-Sheeted
The activists were detained in August 2018 in their alleged connection in Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon violence.
The Pune police on Thursday, 21 February, filed a 1,837-page charge sheet against activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and fugitive Ganapathy, the former general secretary of banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist) in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, ANI reported.
The activists were detained in August last year for their alleged connection to violence at an event commemorating 200 years of the Bhima Koregaon battle. The police suspect them of having Maoist links.
Police teams arrested activist-poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi, after conducting raids at their residence in August 2018.
This comes days after the Supreme Court on 13 February set aside Bombay High Court order refusing to extend 90-day deadline to file a charge sheet against Surendra Gadlin, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale.
Violence had erupted during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Bhima Koregaon battle in January 2018.
(With inputs from ANI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)