Elgar Parishad: Pune police search Noida residence of DU professor, no arrest
The police seized electronic devices form the house of Professor Hany Babu M T (45), but did not arrest him, Bachchan Singh, Pune’s deputy commissioner of police (crime), said in a statement.
The Pune police, on Tuesday, searched the Noida residence of a University of Delhi professor in connection with the ongoing probe into the Elgar Parishad case.
The police seized electronic devices form the house of Professor Hany Babu M T (45), but did not arrest him, Bachchan Singh, Pune’s deputy commissioner of police (crime), said in a statement.
Pune Police Commissioner K Venkatesham said, “Babu is being probed for the urban naxal connection and the police had a warrant to carry out the house search. We have seized electronic devices and other material from his residence.”
“This search was conducted with respect to an offence registered at Vishrambaug police station, Pune city, related to Elgar Parishad, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967,” read a statement from DCP Singh.
The video of the entire search was recorded and the panchnama was provided to Prof Hany.
This comes after legal representatives of Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer and an activist who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad case from her Faridabad house last year, had raised questions against the police procedure during her arrest.
The other non-Marathi speaking activists had also alleged that the police had not provided the English version of panchnamas.
The Pune police team, which conducted the search, included DCP Singh, assistant commissioner police Shivaji Pawar, who is investigating the case, and a cyber expert among others.
The Pune police claim that the Elgar Parishad, a one-day conference held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, was organised with the help of members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) which is banned under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (Uapa), according to special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar assigned to the case.
In 2018, Pune police arrested nine prominent activists and lawyers - Sudhir Dhawale, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, P Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferriera, and Vernon Gonsalves – in connection with the case.
The nine who are lodged in Yerawada central jail in Pune have been charged under Uapa.
The event, called Elgar Parishad, was organised a day ahead of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. Several speakers at the event, including Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and Jawaharal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Umar Khalid, had criticised the BJP-led central government in their speeches for what they called its anti-Dalit policies.
The following day, protests erupted as a crowd of Dalit community members and supporters held a march at the Vijay Stambh (victory memorial) in Bhima Koregaon. One person died and several others were injured in the clashes that followed.