Held activists part of maoist org; sought to overthrow govt

Mumbai: Following the recent arrest of left-wing activists, the Maharashtra police on Friday claimed that there was a larger conspiracy by Maoist organisations to overthrow the ruling government using wea-pons procured from Russia and China. Additional director general (law and order) Parambir Singh said that the arrested accused played an active and crucial role in this conspiracy.

At a media briefing, Mr Singh displayed letters allegedly exchanged by some of the arrested activists. “The meetings of the arrested accused were held even in Paris and other international organisation, and funds were being organised from there,” he said.

“The arrested accused were in touch with separatists and extremists  from Manipur and Kashmir. They wanted to emulate stone-pelting activities in Jammu and Kashmir in rest of the county and urban areas,” he added.

ADG Singh, along with Pune police officials on Friday claimed that they had “conclusive proof” to link the left-wing activists arrested this week and in June to Maoists. Singh referred to an email between Rona Wilson, one of the arrested activists, and a Maoist leader, speaking of ending the “Modi Raj” with a “Rajiv Gandhi-type incident”. Wilson was arrested in Delhi in June in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence in Maharashtra in January. Singh said that the police had seized “thousands of letters” exchanged betw-een the over ground activ-ists and the underground Maoists.

Singh shared details of a few letters, which had been sent for forensic investigation. He revea-led that the letter written by Wilson to Maoist lea-der, comrade Prakash, read, “We have received your last letter regarding the current situation here. Arun (Ferreira), Vernon (Gonsalves) and others are equally concerned about the urban front struggle.” Singh said that Wilson’s letter to Prakash spoke about the requirement of '8 crore for supply of rifles, grenade launchers, and four lakh rounds of ammunition.

The letter said,  according to Mr Singh, “Comrade Kishen and a clutch of other comrades have proposed concrete steps to end the “Modi Raj”. We are thinking along the lines of another Rajiv Gandhi (assassination)-like incident.”

Mr Singh further said, “Some of the letters exchanged between the arrested activists spoke of planning ‘some big action’ which would attract attention.”