The arrests of human rights activists and raids on their residences across five States by the Pune police is an “ominous pointer” to how swiftly the country is “coming under an authoritarian regime” and such attacks should not go unchallenged, the CPI (M) mouthpiece People’s Democracy said in an edit on Wednesday.
The edit is in the context of the arrest of five activists, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira on August 28. The residence of Dalit intellectual Anand Teltumbde in Goa, activist Stan Swami in Ranchi and others were searched. The arrests and searches were part of an ongoing probe into the the Elgar Parishad rally and the Bhima Koregaon violence that took place on January 1.
“So far the police have not provided a shred of evidence,” the edit noted.
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The weekly is edited by former general secretary Prakash Karat.
The edit said the ‘absurdity’ of the Maoist link to the Elgar Parishad rally was exposed when two retired judges, P.B. Sawant and Kolse Patil, stated that they had taken the initiative to organise the meeting.
It accused the Maharashtra police of a biased probe, since no action was taken against the actual instigators of the violence, Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide.
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