Pune: The Pune police on Wednesday maintained that they have collected “highly incriminating evidence” which establishes a link between the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit and the five human rights activists, who were arrested on Tuesday, in the probe relating to the Elgar Parishad held in the city on the eve of the January 1 violence in Koregaon Bhima.Joint police commissioner Shivaji Bodkhe and deputy commissioner of police (crime) Shirish Sardeshpande briefed reporters about the progress of the investigation. Sardeshpande said, “The evidence reveals the involvement of (left-leaning cultural organisation) Kabir Kala Manch and the arrested activists. The banned CPI (Maoist) leaders had provided funds to the KKM and the arrested activists. There was an elaborate communication between the CPI (Maoist) leaders and the arrested activists through e-mails and letters. During a meeting, some important decisions were taken which we consider as incriminating evidence.”While Sardeshpande did not elaborate further on the meeting, a senior police officer on condition of anonymity told TOI, “Police are in receipt of the minutes of a meeting of the CPI (Maoist) central committee which took place in March 2017 following the conviction of Delhi University professor G N Saibaba. In the meeting, the panel planned to raise funds for the agitation against the government on various platforms, including the Elgar Parishad. They wanted to develop their urban cadre with the funds.”Sardeshpande said, “The evidence also reveals that the arrested activists and the KKM members were provoking the masses long before the Elgar Parishad. An analysis of seized documents, electronic devices and other things clearly indicates the CPI (Maoist) conspiracy to form the All India United Front in the urban areas. This is in keeping with the wish of the Eastern Regional Bureau of the CPI (Maoist). These activists and the banned outfit were working towards overthrowing the government.”Sardeshpande said, “In pursuance of this conspiracy, efforts were made to establish the front (AIUF) in Maharashtra through the Elgar Parishad. The evidence points towards the involvement and a major role played by Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha in the larger conspiracy hatched by the CPI (Maoist).”Bodhkhe and Sardeshpande said the evidence also involves provision of funds, responsibilities to radicalize the youth and students and the procurement of arms. Some of the evidences showed a nexus between the arrested activists and other unlawful organisations.On Wednesday evening, special judge K D Vadane told activists P Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira that the Supreme Court, in an order earlier in the day, had directed that they should be placed under house arrest.The development came after arguments over the trio’s custodial remand were completed by district government pleader Ujjwala Pawar and defence lawyers Rohan Nahar and Rahul Deshmukh, who were assisted by lawyer Tosif C Shaikh.The three activists were brought to court around 2.55pm. When the remand proceedings started a while later, they made separate written submissions raising certain grievances. “When I was arrested, a long list of seized material was written in Marathi and I was not given any translation of it either in English, Hindi or in my mother tongue. I believe the material has been tampered with,” Rao stated.Ferreira submitted, “Before the search and seizure at my residence, I made an oral and a written request before the presiding officer that I should be provided a mirror image of the e-storage devices (pen drives, hard disks etc) before the items are sealed. I was not given a copy.” He also claimed that the seizure and sealing was not done properly and said, “I believe the said e-storage devices have been used to plant incriminating material against me.”Gonsalves stated, “The search was conducted without following procedure established by law, and tampering and planting has been done. During a medical examination after my arrest, my blood pressure shot up. I was given additional medication and kept under observation for half an hour.” Gonsalves urged the court to take his submission on record and direct the police to get his medical examination done after every 24 hours.District government pleader Ujjwala Pawar, however, dismissed these allegations and submitted that the entire search and seizure procedure was videographed from the point of the police knocking on the doors of the activists till the process was completed. The seizure panchanamas were explained to the activists in their language and this has been covered in the video footage which has been sent for a forensic examination, she said.Pawar went on to unfold the prosecution’s case in favour of the trio’s custodial remand by reading out several letters “establishing a link between the activists and the banned CPI (Maoist) outfit” and how they were part of a larger conspiracy to destablise the government and wage a war against the country.Nahar and Deshmukh countered by arguing that the activists were being dragged into the case and had no link with either the Elgar Parishad or the Koregaon Bhima violence. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was not applicable to the case as the Koregaon Bhima violence was neither an outcome of terrorist activity nor had any terrorism ingredients as defined by the Act, they argued.

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