Three activists reach home a day after Supreme Court order

Pune/Mumbai: Pune police on Thursday sent three Left-wing activists, arrested for their alleged links with the Maoists, to their homes in compliance with a directive of the Supreme Court.

Left leaning Telugu poet and writer Varavara Rao reached home in Hyderabad Thursday morning, while activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira were sent to Mumbai by road, a police official said.

Pune’s assistant commissioner of police Shivaji Pawar, who is the investigation officer in the case, said the three activists will be kept under “house arrest”.

“We have our own police officers and personnel, along with local police from the respective cities, who will be deployed at their residences,” he added.

Mr Gonsalves reached his home in Mumbai’s Andheri suburb around 7.30 am. His wife, advocate Susan Abraham, said, “Vernon reached home safely and we welcomed him. We have requested the police not to block the entire road of our housing society which may scare other people”. Mr Ferriera was taken to his home in Thane district, an official said. The Supreme Court had ordered on Wednesday that the five human rights activists — Mr Rao, Mr Ferreira, Mr Gonzalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Gautam Navlakha — be kept under house arrest.

Following the apex court’s order, a Maharashtra court had directed Pune police to send Mr Rao, Mr Gonsalves and Mr Ferreira back to their homes. Unionist and lawyer Ms Bharadwaj is confined to her home in Faridabad and civil liberties activist Navlakha to his Delhi residence.

Meanwhile, a letter, which the Maharashtra police claims to have recovered during its multi-city raids two days back, alleges that Mr Navlakha was in contact with Kashmiri separatists.

The undated letter in Hindi, written by “Comrade Sudha” to “Comrade Prakash”, also talks about giving financial help to “comrades” working in the “interiors”, as is supposedly done by backers of militants and stone pelters in Kashmir. The letter said, “Comrade Ankit and Comrade Gautam Navlakha are in contact with Kashmiri separatists.” It is not clear from the letter as to who “Sudha”, “Prakash” or “Ankit” are. Pune police had on Tuesday raided the homes of Left-wing activists in several states and arrested five of them. The raids were part of a probe into a conclave — Elgar Parishad — held in Koregaon-Bhima near Pune on December 31 last year, which had allegedly triggered violence the next day.

“The arrested activists were part of a conspiracy to target higher political functionaries,” joint commissioner of Pune police Shivajirao Bodkhe had said.