Even as the Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgment in the Bhima Koregaon activists' arrest case, the Maharashtra police claimed it has evidence to prove how one of the five arrested 'urban Naxals' helped Communist Party of India (Maoist) to plan an ambush on security forces at six locations. The police claimed that the CPI(Maoist) had ambushed four places.
The SC bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, before reserving orders, gave the state police time till Saturday to submit the entire case diary and evidence gathered against the arrested activists. Currently, all the give activists are under house arrest. The activists namely Vara Varo Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Gautam Navlakha were arrested on August 28.
Explaining the sequence of events leading to the arrest of the five persons, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta representing Maharashtra Police read out to the SC portions from documents seized from two raids conducted by the police in April 2018 and August 28. The April 2018 raids led to the arrest of five persons Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhanwale, Shoma Sen, and Mahesh Raut on June 6.
Supplying a copy of the confidential material to each of the judges on the bench – CJI Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, ASG Mehta said that in one of the letters, a Central Committee member of CPI(Maoist) is seen writing a letter to one of the activists that the person in question must arrange logistics in order to carry out planned attacks on security forces at six locations. These locations could not be known but the ASG remarked that out of the six places, four places were ambushed. In another letter, the Central Committee member is seen "scolding" one of the activists for not sending money. It is not known whether the activist is one among the five arrested on June 6 or the ones arrested later on August 28. ASG Mehta said that the evidence gathered from the possession of the first set of accused arrested on June 6 was so incriminating that none among them, except one, came forward to seek bail.
Historian Romila Thapar, and others filed a plea in the court for the release of the activists. Their lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi dismissed the letters as "fabricated".
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