New Delhi: Maharashtra police Tuesday raided the homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least four of them for suspected Maoist links.
Near simultaneous searches were carried out at the residences of prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade union activist Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha in New Delhi.
Subsequently, Rao, Bhardwaj and Ferreira were arrested. Although Navlakha was arrested, the Delhi High Court ordered police not to take him out of the national capital at least until Wednesday. According to unconfirmed reports, others whose residences were raided are Susan Abraham, Kranthi Tekula, Father Stan Swamy in Ranchi and Anand Teltumbde in Goa. The raids were carried out as part of a probe into the violence between Dalits and the upper caste Peshwas at Koregaon-Bhima village near Pune after an event called Elgar Parishad, or conclave, December 31 last year.
Two letters, purportedly exchanged by Maoist leaders, indicated plans to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and home minister Rajnath Singh, leading to police action against the Left-wing activists and arrest of five of them, security officials said.
While the 2016 letter suggested that there were deliberations among the Naxals to kill Modi, Shah and Singh, the 2017 letter referred to a plan to carry out a Rajiv Gandhi assassination-type attack on the Prime Minister during one of his roadshows, they claimed.
The second letter was addressed to “Comrade Prakash” and was found from the residence of a Delhi-based activist, Rona Wilson, June 6, according to a security official privy to the development.
Along with Wilson, four others were also arrested during raids in June by police in different parts of the country in connection with the matter.
The letters were reportedly recovered after the anti-Naxal operations in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, in which 39 Maoists were killed, in April.
The 2017 letter also referred to “senior comrades” suggesting “concrete steps” to end the NDA dispensation and to raising several crore of rupees to buy American M-4 rifles and some ammunition, the official said.
The police action started at 6 am Tuesday and was carried out simultaneously by Maharashtra Police led by Joint Commissioner of Pune, Ravindra Kadam, in Ranchi, Goa, Delhi and Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, the nationwide crackdown on activists, advocates and human rights defenders evoked a sharp criticism from Amnesty International India and Oxfam India.
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