HC respite for Naxal suspects

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday restrained the state police from transferring two suspected leaders of the banned Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Peoples’ War) from Chandrapur in Vidarbha till the next hearing on January 11.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested Vernon Gonzalves and Shridhar Shrinivasan from Mumbai on August 19. They were handed over to the Anti-Naxalite Squad in September. Gonzalves’s wife Susan Abraham, a practising lawyer, filed a habeas corpus petition seeking to know the whereabouts of her husband and Shridhar.

While Shridhar is an alumnus of Elphinstone College, Gonzalves is a gold medallist from Mumbai University and a former lecturer at Ruparel College and HR College. Their family members have denied that they are Naxalites. The police, however, claim to have recovered incriminating documents and explosives from the duo.

Abraham’s lawyer Anand Grover told the court that the duo was being transferred from one police station to another and kept continuously in police custody for over 61 days. By law, police custody cannot exceed 15 days.