Bhima-Koregaon violence: Activists arrested to discourage Dalit, Bahujan unity, says lawyers' body

The arrest of five activist-intellectuals in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence is a move to "discourage" the unity of Dalits and Bahujans against "castiest-Hindutva forces", a Nagpur-based lawyers' body alleged today.

The Indian Association of People's Lawyers (IAPL) also sought the release of the five persons, including its general secretary Surendra Gadling.

The Pune Police had yesterday arrested them for allegedly having close Maoist links.

The arrested include prominent Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale; Head of English Department, Nagpur University, Shoma Sen; activist Mahesh Raut and Kerala native Rona Wilson, who is associated with Committee for Release of Political Prisoners.

"The IAPL believes these arrests are being made in order to discourage the unity and organising of Dalit and Bahujans against castiest-Hindutva forces, and even more to threaten lawyers, professors and activists from standing up for the rights and democratic values in their professional capacities," IAPL vice president Sudha Bharadwaj said in a press conference here.

Gadling was arrested in the case, under the "draconian" Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), in which the FIR was registered in January and conspiracy charges were added in March, she claimed.

Gadling was the defence counsel for Delhi University professor G N Saibaba who was convicted for Maoist links.

Being a lawyer for a political prisoner is not a crime and he was not a criminal, Bharadwaj said.

Four others, including former JNU student Hem Mishra and former journalist Prashant Rahi, were convicted along with the DU professor and sentenced to "imprisonment for life" by a sessions court in Maharashtra in March 2017.

"The state is trying to implicate people like advocates, thinkers and others by branding them as Maoists and arresting them. We are worried about the manner in which the arrest was made yesterday.

"The police took him in a hurry to the judge's residence and obtained his custody," Bharadwaj said.

However, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), Pune, Ravindra Kadam had said Dhawale was arrested from his house in Mumbai, and Gadling, Raut and Sen were picked up from Nagpur.

Wilson was arrested from his flat in Munirka in Delhi in simultaneous raids yesterday morning, the officer had said.

The IAPL alleged that the leaders of hindutva organisation who are named as instigators of the Bhima Koregaon violence still roam free.

"The bias of the State is all the more obvious when the leaders of Hindutva organisations named in many complaints and FIRs as instigators of the Bhima Koregaon violence - Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide - whose anticipatory bail applications have been refused by even the Supreme Court, still roam free," the IAPL said.

Dhawale was one of the organisers of the Elgar Parishad. It was organised to commemorate 200 years of the Koregaon Bhima battle on December 31 at Shaniwarwada.

According to the FIR registered at the Vishrambaug police station after the event, Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) activists had allegedly made provocative speeches leading to violence at Koregaon Bhima,