Who are these 5 activists arrested by Pune Police: Sudha Bhardwaj to Varavara Rao, all you need to know

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, Farreira, 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.’

While the Pune Police maintains that the arrests were part of crackdown against the ‘Urban Naxal’ conspiracy that led to Bhima-Koregaon violence earlier this year. 

During the ongoing probe in the Dalit Violence in Maharashtra, the security officials had also recovered two letters over the past few months, indicating Maoist plans to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It is being said that the letters were also a reason for the raids.

Even as the debates rages over the arrests, here’s all you need to know about these high-profile activists:

Sudha Bhardwaj: The 54-year-old has been living in Chhattisgarh for nearly three decades. Known as trade unionist, Bhardwaj has worked extensively in the field of human rights and civil liberty. General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Bharadwaj was 11 when she came to India. An American citizen by birth, Bhardwaj gave up her US citizenship at the age of 18. She studied at the IIT-Kanpur. It was after her graduation in 1984 that Bhardwaj started working for the people affected by the land acquisitions done by the private sectors companies. 

Varavara Rao: As far as the leftist ideological circle is concerned, Varavara Rao is a big name. The poet and journalist, Known for taking stand against the neoliberal state, Rao is considered as a propagator of maoist ideology. Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, Rao has faced many arrests by the state government for his alleged involvement in various ‘conspiracies’ to destabilise the government. Even at the national level, he was kept behind bars during emergency and his activities have remained under scanner of both the state as well as central security agencies. Rao is known as a prolific poet who has around 15 poetry collections against his name. He also founded ‘Virasam’, Revolutionary Writers’ Association which was later banned by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira: While activist Vernon Gonsalves was arrested from his residence in suburban Andheri in Mumbai, another Mumbai-based activist Arun Ferreira was apprehended from his residence at Charai in adjoining Thane, police said. Previously, both 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, reacting to her husband's arrest, 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. 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. Earlier, Ferriera and Gonsalves have co-authored the controversial article titled 'Why the letter about a 'Rajiv Gandhi-type' assassination plot to kill Modi is fake' in June this year.

Gautam Navlakha: Navlakha has been associated with People's Union for Democratic Rights and is a Delhi-based journalist. He is also an editorial consultant of the Economic and Political Weekly. He, along with Sudha Bharadwaj, demanded repeal of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. They said, the Act, passed to regulate the activities of unlawful organisations, has been used by the government to curb extremist activities as opposed to unlawful activities. Navlakha, a frequent traveller to Kashmir Valley for the last two decades, has also written extensively about alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.    

(With PTI inputs)