The five activists arrested from various parts of the country today for suspected Maoist links had allegedly funded the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave in Pune, held a day before the Koregaon-Bhima violence, police said on Tuesday.
The speeches at the conclave, held on December 31 last year to mark the 200th anniversary of the Koregaon-Bhima battle, had fuelled the violence a day later, they said.
The five were arrested after the Pune police on Tuesday carried searches in Mumbai, Thane, Hyderabad, Faridabad, Chhattisgarh, and Goa, an official said.
They had allegedly funded the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave, a police official said.
India woke up to the arrests of prominent human rights activists in near-simultaneous raids conducted by the teams of the Pune Police on Tuesday.
Prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao was arrested in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira were held in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj was arrested in Faridabad and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha was arrested in New Delhi.
Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj, Ferreira, Gonzalves and Navalakha were arrested under the Indian Penal Code Section 153 (A), which relates to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place or birth, residence, language and committing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
Some other sections of the IPC were also pressed against those arrested, along with Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their ‘alleged Naxal activities.’
Both, Ferreira and Gonzalves were also arrested in 2007 for their alleged links with Maoist groups, police said. After his acquittal, Ferreira completed a law degree and started practice as a criminal lawyer in Mumbai, the official said.
Ferreira, who earlier lived in suburban Bandra, shifted to Thane along with his family a few years ago, the official said.
Police had alleged that Gonsalves, a former professor in a prominent Mumbai college, was a Maoist central committee member.
Meanwhile, Susan Abraham, the wife of Gonsalves, said the BJP-led government in Maharashtra has "failed to take any action" against right-wing Sanatan Sanstha, which she claimed was behind the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
"This is an attempt to divert people's attention from the Sanatan case. That is why action is being taken in the guise of combating urban naxalism," Susan, a Mumbai-based lawyer, told PTI.
The state government has not taken action against right-wing leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote who were behind the Koregaon-Bhima violence, she said.
She claimed that her husband did not incite the Koregaon-Bhima violence, as alleged by the police. "Police are taking action against people in connection with a fictitious plot of assassination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," she said.
(With PTI inputs)
