A team of the Pune police on Tuesday conducted searches at the residence of academic-activist Hany Babu M.T. in Noida in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case, said officials.
The team comprised Assistant Commissioner of Police (Swargate division) Shivaji Pawar, the investigating officer in the case; Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Bachchan Singh; and others.
Mr. Pawar said no arrests had been made so far and that the police had seized some electronic devices.
He said the search was conducted as per the FIR registered at the Vishrambaug police station (in January last) under Sections 153 (a) (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race etc), 505 1 (b) among others in connection with the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ held at Pune’s Shaniwarwada Fort on December 31, 2017, as part of the bicentenary celebrations of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.
Mr. Babu’s wife Jenny Rowena alleged that the police searched their house for nearly six hours without a warrant and took away his laptop, mobile phone and pen drives along with other articles.
A Facebook post by her read: “Today, the Pune police entered our house at 6.30 in the morning. They said that Hany Babu (my husband) who teaches at Delhi University English Department, is involved in the Bhima Koregaon case and for this they could search the house without a search warrant. They searched the house for up to six hours, took three books and his laptop, phone, hard disks and pen drives. They just left now. [sic]”
Noida Police Public Relations Officer said they are not authorised to speak on the matter. Mr. Babu, an associate professor at Delhi University, is also the coordinator of the ‘Alliance of Social Justice’ and a member of the ‘Joint Action Front for Democratic Education’.
He was also a member of the ‘Committee for the Defense and Release of Dr. G.N. Saibaba’, which had condemned the rejection of permanent bail to the incarcerated DU academic accused of having Maoist links.
Advocate Surendra Gadling, who was the defence counsel for professor Saibaba, was arrested on June 6 last year by the Pune police along with four others, including Dalit publisher Sudhir Dhawale, Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen and activists Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson for their alleged links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and their role in the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ and the Bhima-Koregaon clashes.
(With inputs from
Hemani Bhandari)
