The Bombay High Court on Monday was surprised to learn that the Maharashtra police had conducted a press conference on the arrest of five human rights activists accused of being a part of the Elgar Parishad and instigating the subsequent clashes at Bombay High Court in December last year.
A division bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar raised questions about Maharashtra Additional Director General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh reading out documents and letters, which could be used as evidence, at the August 31 press conference.
“How can the police do this? The matter is sub judice. The Supreme Court is seized of the matter. In such cases, revealing information pertaining to the case is wrong,” the Bench said.
The court was hearing a petition filed by one Satish Gaikwad, seeking the transfer of the Bhima-Koregaon case from the Pune police to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Mr Gaikwad, who claims to be a victim of the Koregaon Bhima violence, alleged that the Pune police had now come up with a “new connected” story that the violence was instigated by the Elgar Parishad organisers at Shanivarwada.
On August 28, the Pune Police had conducted multiple raids across the country and arrested five prominent human rights activists. These arrests follow the arrest of five activists earlier on June 6., five others were arrested.
During the press conference, Mr Singh said, “they have evidence that clearly establish links between Maoist organisations and the arrested rights activists.” He also displayed letters allegedly exchanged by some of the arrested activists and said, “There was a larger conspiracy by Maoist organisations to overthrow the lawfully established Indian government using weapons procured from Russia and China. The arrested accused played an active and crucial role in this conspiracy.”
Additional government pleader Deepak Thakare told the court that he would ask the police about the same.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Satish Gaikwad, seeking the transfer of the Bhima-Koregaon violence case from the Pune police to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The petition alleged that the Pune police had now come up with a “new connected” story that the violence was instigated by the Elgar Parishad organisers at Shanivarwada.
The petition pointed out that police put forward this claim despite registering an FIR after the incident and arresting prime accused Milind Ekbote, who is currently in judicial custody.
The plea said the arrests of intellectuals and lawyers were being carried out purely on the whims and fancies of the Pune police. The petition sought the transfer of the investigation from Vishrambaug police station to the NIA. It also wants a stay on the FIR, which led to the arrests in June of Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale. The police had no right to probe the case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the petition said.
On January 8, Tushar Damgude, a businessman from Pune, lodged an FIR with the Pune police against the organisers of the Elgar Parishad for making provocative speeches that allegedly led to the riots at Bhima-Koregoan on January 1 this year.
The matter is posted to be heard on September 7.
