THANE/MUMBAI: Pune police on Tuesday arrested activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves from their homes following nationwide raids on alleged Maoist sympathisers. Two of the five people arrested across the country were from the Mumbai region.Sources said that around 6am, Pune crime branch officials, along with plainclothes police from Thane, swooped down on Sharon building in Charai, old Thane, and launched a search at Ferriera's home.As he was being taken to the police station around 3pm, Ferriera (50) termed the arrest "a plot against human rights activists across the nation". Ferreira, who recently shifted to Thane from Bandra, said: "I have been arrested in the same case where I'm defending the accused... I don't know anything else." Police seized heaps of documents as well as some books and a laptop from his home.Ferreira was first arrested in 2007 for alleged links with extremists; following his acquittal by a Chandrapur sessions court, he was released in 2011. But, no sooner had he stepped out of jail, than he was arrested again. He was granted bail later. Pune joint commissioner of police (law and order) Shivaji Bodke told TOI Ferreira has now been arrested on the basis of "solid evidence" and the police have documentary as well as other leads about his alleged links to Elgar Parishad, which was held in December 2017.On Tuesday morning, a Pune police team raided the house of humans right lawyer Vernon Gonsalves (62) in MIDC in Andheri. Sources said that as Gonsalves had gone for a morning walk when police landed at his residence, they were not sure if the cops had come for Gonsalves or his wife Susan, who is a lawyer. Police took away his phone and laptop, CPU of two old computers, three mobile phones, three pen drives and several books from his house. Gonsalves said he has been framed. "I am falsely implicated." He was previously accused of having links with Maoists.Sources in MIDC police said the Pune crime branch had sent a letter to Mumbai police seeking police assistance. A source in MIDC police later said Pune police had not made any entry.

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