‘Urban Naxals’ Accused In Bhima Koregaon Violence Organised Lecture In JNU Commemorating Slain Maoist

Maharashtra police told a Pune Court yesterday (14 June) that four ‘urban naxals’, recently arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence, had planned and executed a lecture series in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in memory of a Maoist leader who was killed in an encounter by police. The lectures were planned in order to lure students to join the banned outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoist).

“It was on the Maoists’ directions that the lecture series was organised on the JNU campus and the event was to instigate, provoke and motivate students to join this banned organisation,” public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar told the court.

The state police was seeking extension of custody of four accused - Sudhir Dhavale, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson - saying that instigating students to join CPI (M) was a part of a big conspiracy and a big threat to national security which needed to be investigated.

Additional sessions judge KD Vadhane extended the custody of the accused till 21 June after the government told the court that the documents seized reveal that the four accused were involved in anti-national activities and further investigation and police custody was needed to establish the truth.

The police told the court that the accused received financial aid to carry out anti-national activities and an amount of Rs 80,000 was seized from Rona Wilson’s home in New Delhi which he hasn’t yet divulged where it came from. Apart from the money, police had also recovered 25 TB of data from the accused.