Elgaar Parishad Case: 90 more days for police to file chargesheet

(From left) Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson and Mahesh Raut were held on June 6 for being allegedly involved in holding the Elgaar Parishad in 2017

On Sunday, special judge K D Wadane granted a 90-day extension to Pune city police for filing a chargesheet against the five people arrested on June 6 in connection with the Elgaar Parishad case on charges of alleged Maoist links.

The chargesheet was to be filed against lawyer Surendra Gadling, professor Shoma Sen, activists Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale, and Rona Wilson, all of whom were held on June 6 for links with the controversial event. They could have secured bail after September 3, had the cops not asked for an extension.

'CPI (M)-funded seminars'
The current case is being investigated by Pune assistant commissioner of police Shivaji Pawar, who has been asked to appear in the Supreme Court on Monday for the rest of the arrest hearing.

Pawar said, "We have recovered huge Call Detail Records (CDR), in which they are heard talking about international-level conferences they have and were going to organise with the intention to trigger disturbance of domestic environment. These seminars were to be funded by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), who had also given Rs 5 lakh for Elgaar Parishad. CPI (M) was carrying out such seminars under names of various organisations."

He added, "It is required to confront those previously arrested with the five [activists] recently kept under house arrest. We are yet to get information regarding the weapons, their supply, and about the new members they recruited from a renowned institute. We've received the cloned copies of the recovered devices. Post the Bhima Koregaon incident, [Mahesh] Raut provided Rs 5 lakh to maintain a violent environment...All the masterminds are members of a banned organisation."

'Huge criminal conspiracy'
Pune district government pleader Ujjwala Pawar argued, "The said electronic records contain a voluminous amount of data, which requires investigation in order to ascertain the implementation of these unlawful activities [being allegedly planned by the arrested accused] in Maharashtra and other states. There is a huge criminal conspiracy being engaged through the unlawful activities being done by banned organisations at New Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Gadchiroli and Chhattisgarh."

Defence lawyers say
Meanwhile, the defence lawyers, Rohan Nahar, Rahul Deshmukh and Siddharth Patil, denied the allegations. They said, "The investigating officers have already recovered everything, and the custody is no longer required. They are reputed persons who have already served their time in prison. They appeal that the police have time till September 4 to file a chargesheet, but they want to delay it."

Currently, a total of 22 people have been booked in the case, of which 14 have been arrested. They have been booked for offences under sections153 A, 505, and 117 of the Indian Penal Code as well as the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Move the activists, says Yerawada
Meanwhile, citing security and overcrowding, the Yerawada Central Prison has moved an application to transfer the five arrested accused from the jail. They also said in their application that the prison already houses a few Naxal leaders and some notorious goons. The authorities said the jail currently has around 5,000 inmates, way over its capacity of 2,323. Yerawada Jail is the largest jail in Maharashtra.

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