Arrested activists being probed for links with banned CPI (Maoist): Pune Police

Following the arrest of five activists on Tuesday in Maharashtra, the Pune Police said that it is investigating the linkage of these individuals with the banned organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Yesterday, the Pune Police, in a raid, arrested Varavara Rao (President, Revolutionary Democratic Front), Sudha Bharadwaj (Vice-President, Indian Association of People's Lawyers), Gautam Navlakha (Leader, People's Union for Democratic Rights), Vernon Gonsalves (former Secretary, Maharashtra State Committee of CPI/Maoist) and Arun Ferreira (former Member, Maharashtra State Committee of CPI/Maoist).

According to Pune Police, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves were also arrested earlier by the Maharashtra Police in 2007 and spent several years in prison. Similarly, Varavara Rao was arrested several times by the Andhra and Telangana Police in the past.

Following the Bhima-Koregaon violence on December 31, 2017, a case was registered on January 8, 2018, in Pune at the Vishrambaug Police Station, Pune City.

During the course of investigation five people -- Surendra Gadling (General Secretary, Indian Association of People's Lawyers), Rona Wilson (Public Relation Secretary, Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners), Sudhir Dhawale (Republican Panthers), Shoma Sen (Executive Member, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights) and Mahesh Raut (State Convener, Maharashtra, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan) -- were arrested on June 6 this year.

Subsequently, five arrests were made yesterday, the police said.

It may be noted the UPA Government, in December 2012, had identified 128 organizations with linkages to the CPI (Maoist) and written to all the states asking them to take action against people involved with these organizations.

As many as seven of them arrested namely Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mahesh Raut belonged to the organizations appearing in this list.