Court grants time to file chargesheet against activists

Pune: A Pune court Monday granted 90 more days to the Pune police to file a chargesheet in the case where four activists have been arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon riots.

The Pune police on November 22 filed an application, seeking extension to file the chargesheet against Sudha Bhardwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Varavara Rao. Sessions Judge K.D. Vadane heard this application.

Public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar asked for extension to file the charge-sheet saying that the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) had a provision that if the judge wasn’t satisfied with the reports submitted by the public prosecutor, time to file the chargesheet could be extended to 30 to 90 days.

Advocate Pawar said, “Sudha, Vernon and Arun were taken into police custody on Oct-ober 26 and were with the police only for 10 days. The crime is of a serious nature and there is a thr-eat to the integrity and security of the nation.”

She refuted the arguments of the defence that the prosecution was repeating the same charges that were leveled against the accused even before their arrest. She said, “I have provided more information that there was communication among Rao and other underground Maoists about how information was leaked. There was correspondence saying that Rao was given authority to buy weapons from Nepal and Manipur and smuggle the same into India. This is a serious crime and it needs more time to investigate. Gonsalves and Ferreira had recruited students from JNU and TISS and the police needs to find it out.”

Meanwhile, Rohan Na-har, Rao’s lawyer, said, “There were no restrictions so why did the police not investigate during the house arrest. Besides, the reason that investiga-ting officers were busy attending court cases in HC and the Supreme Court is not mature.”