Elgaar Parishad Activist cant be booked under UAPA

Mumbai: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – Mumbai based human right activist lawyer Arun Ferreira who is been alleged link in Pune based Elgaar Parishad and Maoist link cannot be booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) claims his lawyer in Pune court during a bail hearing on Monday.
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Elgaar Parishad was held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, on occasion to mark the 200th commemoration of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

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Such case was registered with Vishrambaug police station which falls under the jurisdiction of Pune city police against the organizers of the Elgar Council against Tushar Damgade, alleging that the Maoist think-tank has a hand in hand. On April 17, Pune police teams raided the Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, and Delhi raiding the spot. In it, Sudhir Dhawale, Harshali Potdar, Nagpur based lawyer Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson in New Delhi, and Sagar Gorkha of Kabir Arts Forum at Wakad in Pune, and Ramesh Gaychore of Yerawada Lakshminagar were house were raided on the same day and the police had procured some literature, hard disk, and some bank transaction. Police had seized important documents, Pen Drives, hard disk and presented the report in court. Around 81 documents were seized along with letters, CPI maps, contacts.

Pune police, the searches are being conducted at the residences of left-wing activist and poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonsalves who was in-house arrested under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in 2007,  activist Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj and human rights activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi and other persons in other parts of the country. already on June 6 in this regard the police had arrested Nagpur based lawyer Surendra Gadling, Mumbai based Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Sudhir Dhawale and New Delhi based Rona Wilson.

On Monday in the bail hearing before the Session special judge K D Wadane court.

Ferriera’s lawyer SR Pasbole who argued on Monday for the anticipatory bail pleas argued, “Ferriera did not participate in the Elgaar Parishad neither gave any provoking speech. Neither have any role in the weapon or gathering any amount. How can he be charged under UAPA act? Neither in the First information report (FIR) mentioned his name in the case.”

He went on, “The police and the investigation agencies are being tried to portraying that the Indian Association of People lawyers (IAPL) is Maoist front organization.  Arrested lawyer Gadling is the executive member of the said union and the former Justice is the union president. Will they integrate them and arrest them. Will they be interrogated.”

He added, “The investigation agencies are claiming that Ferreria was in the core team of organizing such event but the former justice P B Sawant and former justice BG Kolse-Patil in public forum then why are not police integrating them and based on some old facts they are mere dragging Ferreira. There is the various online portal which part information about ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other terror outfits, mere reading or having such books related to this cannot be claimed they are part of it. Ferreira is innocent and falsely implicated in this case.

On Tuesday Adv Gadling, Shoma Sen, Sudha Bharatwaj and Veranan Gosavis bail hearing will be decided. In Ferreria bail hearing on Wednesday, the Additional Public Prosecutor Ujjawala Pawar will be arguing on Ferreira case on behalf of the state.