Police Document In Activists' Arrest Skips Key Charges Made In Court

Police Document In Activists' Arrest Skips Key Charges Made In Court

NEW DELHI: A day after the Maharashtra Police arrested five prominent activists for suspected links to Maoists, officers on Wednesday filed a document in a Pune court asking for their custody. The document - a remand report - gave 16 reasons why the rights activists should be in police custody, but had none of the dramatic claims made by the public prosecutor in court, NDTV has learnt.
The police document, accessed exclusively by NDTV, claimed all activists are members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and set up city units of the outlawed group. However, the petition made no reference to key charges made verbally in court and communicated to the media such as a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi or facilitating Maoist funding and weapons via Nepal.

The document also did not mention the clashes in January between Dalits and upper caste Maratha organisations at Bhima-Koregaon near Pune, which they are accused of inciting.

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered house arrest for the five campaigners as outrage grew over their detention.

Civil society activists and the opposition have dismissed the allegations against the activists, who were detained a day earlier after sweeping raids across India, and said the crackdown was part of ongoing attempts to stifle all dissent.

Sudha Bharadwaj, who has been fighting for the rights of workers in Chhattisgarh among other states where Maoists insurgents operate, said the action against her was part of a broader crackdown on opponents of the government.

"The effort is whatever is the opposition to this regime, whether it is workers' rights, tribal rights, everybody who in the opposition is being rounded up," she told reporters outside her home in Faridabad near New Delhi.