Govt: Left-wing activists arrested based on proof

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday defended the arrest of five left-wing activists in Tuesday’s multi-state raids, stating that the action was based on proof about their links with the Naxal movement.

Minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar clarified, “All procedures were followed before conducting the raids against the activists.”

“It is due to their links with the Naxal movement that they have been arrested. If there was no evidence, we would not have taken the action. We have followed procedure before conducting raids against these Naxal activists,” said Mr Kesarkar.

The Pune police on Tuesday raided the homes of prominent left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them - poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh, and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.

The raids were conducted as part of the probe into the Elgar Parishad event held in Pune on December 31 last year which allegedly triggered violence between the dalits and upper caste groups at Bhima-Koregaon.

Mr Kesarkar said, “The Naxals are fighting a war against India. It is not wrong to be left-wing but it is wrong to be a left-wing extremist.

Professor Saibaba from Delhi university arrested in 2014 for alleged links with Maoists is a classic example of intellectuals misusing their brains against the country. The Naxal movement is banned in the country and nobody should sympathise with it.”

Mr Kesarkar said, “We have also arrested right-wing leader, Milind Ekbote, for his alleged links to the violence at Bhima-Koregaon. We should not be criticised for targeting left-wing people alone.”