The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has proposed charging the 15 people arrested in the Elgar Parishad case with 16 offenses, including waging a war against the country for which the maximum penalty is death. According to the draft charges, the NIA submitted earlier this month to a special court, the accused conspired to arrange sophisticated weapons ‘to cause or attempt to cause death to a public official’.
Pune police, which conducted the initial investigation, had said in its draft charges that the weapons were related to an attempt to ‘assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’. The NIA draft charges do not mention the Prime Minister but an NIA official said the draft charges have not gone into specific allegations and the evidence pertaining to these allegations will be part of the trial. Pune police claimed to have seized a letter. Former activist Rona Wilson has approached the Bombay High Court citing a report stating that the ‘incriminating evidence’ seized from his electronic device was planted through malware two years prior to his arrest in 2018.
NIA claims that the 15 accused are members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and that the Elgar Parishad event held in Pune on December 31, 2017 was staged ‘to exploit the communal sentiment of Dalits and other classes in the state and provoke them in the name of caste in order to create violence, instability, and chaos in Pune, including Bhima Koregaon and throughout Maharashtra’. There has been a claim that the accused conspired to demand and thereby obtain Rs 8 crore for the ‘annual supply of M-4 (sophisticated weapons)’. They are also alleged to have recruited students from various universities for the ‘commission of terrorist activity’.
In addition to being booked under 16 common sections, the accused have also been charged with a variety of other offenses. Professor Anand Teltumbde, for example, was charged with destroying evidence under a law related to that. The others who have been accused are: Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, P Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap and Sagar Gorkhe.
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Father Stan Swamy, who died in custody last month, is also mentioned in the draft. He has been absolved of all charges. Also mentioned are six absconding accused. Other charges include sedition, promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy, and applicable sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Based on the chargesheet, the special court will now decide which sections apply to the accused.
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