Elgar Parishad case – Top Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao remanded to police custody till Nov 26

Pune : NP NEWS 24 ONLINE- A special court on Sunday remanded revolutionary writer and top Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao to police custody till November 26 in connection with Elgar Parishad case. He was arrested yesterday night from his house in Hyderabad.

Rao (80) is accused of part of conspiracy to assassinate Prime minister Narendra Modi like Rajiv Gandhi was killed.

District government pleader Ujjwala Pawar argued that Rao’s task included procuring arms and ammunition.

Elgaar Parishad was held at Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017 ahead of the 200th commemoration of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. The next day ie on January 1 when lakhs of people mostly from Dalit community had gathered at Koregaon Bhima, there was large-scale violence in which one Maratha youth was killed while properties worth crores were damaged.

Based on complaint from one Tushar Damgude, Vishrambaug police station had registered case against organisers of Elgaar Parishad who included Harshali Potdar, Sudhir Dhawale of Republican Panthers (RP), Mumbai and Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Deepak Dhengle of the Pune based Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) which is accused of being frontal organisation of banned CPI (Maoist).

There was another case against Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani and student leader Umar Khalid for allegedly giving provocative speeches during at the Elgaar Parishad.

According to police, the Parishad was organized as part of Maoist strategy to mobilize people against the elected government and spread violence.

After a thorough investigation, police arrested Rona Wilson in Delhi, lawyer Surendra Gadling in Nagpur, Sudhir Dhawle in Mumbai, Professor Shoma Sen and former Prime Minister Rural Development (PMRD) fellow Mahesh Raut in Nagpur. A charge sheet was filed against them recently.

Police have also booked four underground Maoist operatives Milind Teltumbde, Prakash alias Ritupam Goswami, Manglu and Deepu for allegedly planning to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They have been booked for offences under Indian Penal Code sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and IPC sections 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) and 117 (Abetting commission of offence by the public) and stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).