The State government has said that Wednesday’s crackdown on Dalit activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence last year is not sudden.
Sources in the Home Department said the investigating agencies were in the process of collecting stronger evidence and establishing a financial link between the Naxal movement and the Dailt activists since the Elgar Parishad was held in Pune on December 31, 2017.
Sources said focus on ‘urban Naxalism’ has heightened since the arrests of the employee of a corporate house in Naxal-related activity earlier this year.
“We have special plans to deal with urban Naxalism, which is now spilling into bigger cities from traditional red areas. Today’s action was not sudden,” said a senior Home Department official. The arrest of Rona Wilson, Dalit activist Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut and lawyer Surendra Gadling was carried out after evidence was accumulated to stand in court, the official said.
“We had registered an offence against some of them for inflammatory speeches during the violence. We were only waiting to build a stronger case,” he said.