A special court on Monday sent poet-activist P. Varavara Rao to 14-day judicial custody for alleged links with Maoists and for his role in the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ and subsequent Bhima-Koregaon clashes.
Mr. Rao was produced at the Pune sessions court after his police custody ended on Monday.
The court further granted the Pune city police a 90-day extension for filing the charge sheet against Mr. Rao and activists Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, and Vernon Gonsalves, who were arrested on August 28 as part of the second countrywide crackdown on ‘urban naxalism’ by Pune police probing the Bhima-Koregaon clashes of January 1 this year.
They, along with civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha, were arrested as part of a larger conspiracy of attempting to overthrow the government, waging war against the country and creating social unrest.
Mr. Navlakha, who has got relief from Delhi High Court, has since moved the Bombay High Court to quash the FIR lodged by the Pune police against him. The Bombay HC has offered him protection from arrest till it hears his case on December 14.
Last week, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Shivaji Pawar, investigating officer in the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ case, had said the city police had moved the application seeking an extension for filing the supplementary charge sheet under Section 43D of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in order to preclude the possibility of the arrested activists’ seeking default bail.
“We moved the application on grounds that the accused could calculate the first 90 days of their arrest (from August 28) and seek default bail,” Mr. Pawar said.
However, Rahul Deshmukh, defence counsel for Mr. Gonsalves, argued that the police’s move was utterly contradictory and implied they were completely unsure about their case.
“The prosecution and the police had argued while seeking the activists’ remand that their house arrest terms could not be considered as ‘police custody’. Now, the police, in seeking an extension to file the charge sheet is implying that the house arrest was part of the custody,” said Mr. Deshmukh.
On September 2, the Pune court had again granted the police a 90-day extension for filing charge sheets against the five activists arrested during the June 6 crackdown including publisher Sudhir Dhawale, prominent human rights lawyer Surendra Gadling, tribal activist Mahesh Raut, Nagpur University English Professor Shoma Sen and activist Rona Wilson.
A 5,160-page charge sheet against them was finally filed by the police on November 15.
They, along with Ms. Bharadwaj, Mr. Ferreira and Mr. Gonsalves are presently incarcerated in Yerwada Jail.
