New Delhi: More than eight months after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the Bhima Koregaon probe in January this year, the agency is likely to file a charge sheet in the case this week with “fresh evidence”, ThePrint has learnt.
The ones who will be named in the charge sheet are activist Gautam Navlakha, Goa Institute of Management professor Anand Teltumbde, Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu and three artistes of Kabir Kala Manch — Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and his wife Jyoti Jagtap.
While Gaichor, Jagtap and Gorkhe were arrested in early September, Teltumbde and Navlakha surrendered before the NIA in April this year. Babu was arrested in July this year.
All of them have been booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, besides various sections of the IPC.
According to a source in the NIA, the charge sheet says that the accused were operating as “part of the urban components of the Naxals”.
Although the NIA charge sheet has named six people, it has left out rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj, who has been in judicial custody since 2018, activists Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, professor Shoma Sen and others. Bharadwaj was charge-sheeted by Pune Police in January this year.
While Bharadwaj and Varavara Rao were arrested along with Gonsalves and Ferreira on 26 August 2018, Sen was taken into custody on 6 June 2018.
Bharadwaj, Rao and Sen have been charged with inciting riots by delivering provocative speeches during an event called Elgaar Parishad organised on 31 December 2017 to mark the 200 years of the Bhima Koregaon battle.
The Pune Police in November 2018 filed a charge sheet against activist Rona Wilson for allegedly plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Activists Sudhir Dhawale and Mahesh Raut, Nagpur-based lawyer Surendra Gadling and professor Sen were also named.
In January this year, Pune Police filed a supplementary charge sheet at a special UAPA court against five people, including Bharadwaj and fugitive Maoist leader Ganapathy.
Also read: Historians’ silence on Bhima Koregaon allowed BJP to brand it as ‘urban Naxalism’
‘Fresh evidence that unravels conspiracy’
According to the NIA source, the charge sheet “traces the entire conspiracy” before and after the Elgaar Parishad event, something that the Pune Police did not have.
“We have evidence of how this meeting was organised, how this conspiracy was hatched for violence. We have put on record technical evidence, documents, and oral evidence that proves this to be an act of conspiracy,” the source said.
“We have also filled the gaps that were left by the Pune Police to prepare a watertight charge sheet,” the source added.
Also read: Kolkata professor says NIA trying to harass him, no connection with Bhima Koregaon case
The case
In a complaint filed by one Tushar Damgude on 8 January 2018 in Pune, Gorkhe, Gaichor, Jagtap and Deepak Dhengle of the Kabir Kala Manch, and Harshali Potdar and Sudhir Dhawale of Dalit rights group Republican Panthers were named for allegedly creating communal tension by delivering provocative speeches at the Elgaar Parishad event.
An FIR was then filed against these activists for allegedly making inflammatory speeches.
In June 2018, five activists — Gadling, Sen, Raut, Dhawale and Wilson — were arrested by Pune Police, and charged under the UAPA. Subsequently, four more activists were arrested, including Bharadwaj and Rao.
In November the same year, these activists and 10 others were charged with a conspiracy to assassinate PM Modi and waging war against the nation and state of Maharashtra, and for alleged acts of terrorism.
Draft charges were submitted by Pune Police against the 19 accused in the case at a special UAPA court in Pune.
Sincerely wish that NIA submits a solid and foolproof chargesheet against them leading to their conviction and sentencing.