Mumbai: Asserting the same claims as it had made in its earlier charge sheet, the
Pune Police on Thursday filed an over 1800-page supplementary charge sheet in the Elgaar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case.
The charge sheet was filed against the arrested accused including Delhi-based activist Rona Wilson, Nagpur-based lawyer Surendra Gadling, Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen, Republican Panthers member Sudhir Dhawale and advocate and activist Arun Ferreira. The police claimed that the accused were either affiliated, or were over ground members of the banned CPI (Maoists), and were part of its larger conspiracy to overthrow the Indian government. ET was the first to report on the Pune Police’s plan to file a supplementary charge sheet before February 23 to deny the arrested accused the opportunity to seek bail on the ground of police failing to file the charge sheet within the stipulated time frame under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.
The charge sheet also names Muppala Laxmana Rao, alias Ganapathy, who led the banned
Communist Party of India (Maoist) since its inception in 2004 as a wanted accused. Ganapathy recently stepped down due to health-related issues. According to the charge sheet,
Varavara Rao was in touch with Ganapathy, taking orders and appraising him of the developments.
On the plans to destabilise the government, the charge sheet stated, “Rao and Gadling passed on information pertaining to security forces. Based on their information, the banned outfit used to plan their strikes”.
It also said that Rao and Wilson were involved in buying arms and ammunition and were in touch with comrade Basanta, politburo member and secretary of the newly formed revolutionary Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). “Rao was in touch with Basanta, who is a Maoist leader in Nepal for the procurement of arms and ammunition,” the charge sheet said. However, it doesn’t mention anything about any procurement or possible money trail. Last year, while making the arrests, the Pune cops had claimed that the speechesmade at Elgaar Parishad, an event held on December 31, 2017, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon, were partly responsible for triggering the violence at
Bhima Koregaon on January 1, 2018.