Bhima-Koregaon case: Pune police oppose Gonsalves’s bail

Pune police commenced arguments opposing the bail application of activist Vernon Gonsalves in the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday.

Pune police commenced arguments opposing the bail application of activist Vernon Gonsalves in the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday.

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Gonsalves, with civil rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj and activist Arun Ferreira, is in jail for his alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon violence on January 1, 2018.

The police claimed that two letters recovered by them corroborate their stand that Gonsalves was associated with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), which the police claim had orchestrated the incident. Therefore, the police stated that Gonsalves should not be granted bail. Arguments by Pune police will continue on Thursday.

Additional public prosecutor Aruna Pai informed a bench of justice Sarang Kotwal that Gonsalves was part of a banned frontal organisation that worked with the CPI (Maoist).

She submitted that Gonsalves was close to Shrikant Sriniwas, former state coordinator for the Maoist group who died in 2015 and both were convicted together in 2007 in a case under the Arms Act and UAPA Act. She further added that though Gonsalves was not directly involved with CPI (Maoist), his association with known members were sufficient to incriminate him.

Pai also submitted that a letter recovered from activist Rona Wilson’s computer revealed details of a conspiracy of the CPI (Maoist) to procure arms from Nepal to counter the rising death of its workers. Pai submitted that the letter also alluded to Gonsalves’s alleged role of a recruiter in the banned organisation.

When the bench said that the role of Gonsalves was not clear from the letter, Pai responded saying that based it was clear that he was not only involved in daily activities but was also in recruitment, training and promoting the ideologies of CPI (Maoist).

She also referred to a letter dated January 2, 2018, recovered from Wilson’s computer that mentioned that Gonsalves was preparing for the agitation two months before to the incident.

Pune police further referred to another letter recovered from the Gonsalves’s house that spoke about furthering Bolshevik ideology. Pai submitted that Bolshevism is the ideology followed by the CPI (Maoist) and hence there was sufficient material against Gonsalves to deny him bail.