Gaichor and Jagtap said police seized copies of their songs and poems, manuscripts of their street plays, phones and computer hard disks during the search that lasted for seven hours. Gaichor and Jagtap said police seized copies of their songs and poems, manuscripts of their street plays, phones and computer hard disks during the search that lasted for seven hours. Kabir Kala Manch artistes Ramesh Gaichor and his wife Jyoti Jagtap have said the searches carried out by Pune City Police in various cities on Tuesday were an attempt to divert attention from the “real culprits, Bhide and Ekbote”.’ The couple’s residence in Yerawada were among the many residences of persons with alleged Maoist links searched by police on Tuesday. Gaichor and Jagtap said police seized copies of their songs and poems, manuscripts of their street plays, phones and computer hard disks during the search that lasted for seven hours. Both Gaichor and Jagtap were part of the organising committee of the Elgaar Parishad, a conference held at Shaniwar Wada on December 31 last year to mark the 200th year of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima. The next day, celebrations to mark the bicentenary anniversary of the battle had taken a violent turn, as clashes broke out between Dalit and Maratha groups. One person was killed, several injured and property worth crores was damaged in the violence. Hindutva leaders Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote were booked on charges of orchestrating the violence in Koregaon Bhima region on January 1. While Ekbote has been arrested and is in magisterial custody, police have claimed that they do not have sufficient evidence against Bhide. Days later, an offence was registered against six persons from the Elgaar Parishad’s organising committee, including members of the Pune-based group KKM, on charges of ‘creating communal disharmony’ leading to violence. A similar case was also registered against Dalit MLA from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani, and JNU student leader Umar Khalid over their speeches at Elgaar Parishad. On Tuesday, police also conducted searches at the residence of KKM member Sagar Gorkhe in Wakad and Deepak Dengle in Pimple Gurav. “A police team came to our house at 6.15 am and showed us a search warrant. We cooperated with them and helped them… we are firm believers in the Constitution and are sure we will get justice in a court of law. They seized our phones, hard disk and some CDs. They have also seized songs written by us, manuscripts of street plays and notes of our Shahiri Jalsa programmes,” said Gaichor. Jagtap said, “Police are deliberately trying to link false cases from the past, accusing us of having Naxal links, to these false cases about Koregaon Bhima. Look at the sequence of events… on January 1, the violence took place. On January 3, Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote were booked. And five days later, we were booked for the same reasons they were booked for. These are clearly the action of a police machinery working under political pressure. The searches conducted at our residences are meant to divert attention from Bhide and Ekbote, who are the real culprits. The Modi and Fadnavis governments are suppressing free and dissenting voices through such cases and actions.” Akash Sable, another member of the Elgaar Parishad organising committee, said, “Members from 260 organisations had come to together for the Elgaar Parishad. The police are only focussing on KKM members because people in power want to project that the entire Elgaar Parishad has Naxal links… even the cases against KKM are false…”. For all the latest Pune News, download Indian Express App

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