New Delhi: Tuesday morning came as a sudden surprise for most of the prominent human rights activists with Investigation agencies visiting their houses, conducting sudden raids at homes as a part of an ongoing probe into massive Dalit protest in Bhima-Koregaon earlier this January.
So far the Pune Police have raided the homes of prominent human rights lawyer and national secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Sudha Bharadwaj, Dalit intellectual and writer Anand Teltumbde, activist Susan Abraham, revolutionary poet Varavara Rao and lawyer and author Arun Ferreira, and former secretary of People’s Union for Democratic Rights Gautam Navlakha, HuffPost India reported.
Sudha Bhardwaj is currently in police custody while Navlakha is reported to have been detained by police in his home located in Delhi while there are no updates on other people.
The Police has recently arrested Nagpur based lawyer Surendra Gadling, Dalit activist and publisher Sudhir Dhawale, literature professor Shoma Sen, and activists Mahesh Raut and Rona Wilson in June during the ongoing probe believed to be a wide ranging conspiracy.
The Police had then also claimed to have discovered letters that mentioned assassination plot of PM Modi. Though the police mentioned about the letters, none of the letters distributed to media were submitted in Court.
“This is a witch-hunt that we have been anticipating for some time,” said V. Suresh, national general secretary of PUCL, and a well-known lawyer in Chennai.
“While political parties have stayed silent, only human rights groups, women’s groups and environmental groups have challenged the oppressive and fascist rule of the ruling party in the central and some state governments.”